April 6, 2004
Complete Women's Tennis Release in PDF Format
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ON TAP: The Arizona State women's tennis team (6-11; 1-4 Pac-10) will travel to Berkeley to take on the No. 11 Bears of California (14-6; 3-2 Pac-10) on Friday, April 9 at 1:30 p.m. The Sun Devils will then head over to Palo Alto to face top-ranked Stanford (19-0; 4-0 Pac-10) on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. Both duals will count towards the overall Pac-10 standings.
LAST TIME OUT: ASU split its final two home duals of the season, defeating Washington State, 6-1, and falling, 4-1, to No. 6 Washington. Against WSU, the dual started off well for the Sun Devils as they swept the doubles with Joslynn Burkett and Rebecca Rankin coming in with a quick 8-2 win, while the other duos for the Devils came in with two tough 9-7 wins to take the doubles point. The day continued well for the Devils as they stepped up to take five of the six singles matches. The UW dual was a makeup from the originally scheduled match which was rained out Friday afternoon. Due to time constraints, the dual was played tournament-style with the first team to four winning the dual, and doubles being played only if the teams split the singles points. Doubles was unnecessary though, as the Huskies took four singles points in five matches. The Devils faced a tough lineup as three of the Huskies singles players were nationally-ranked. The one bright point of the day for the Devils came with freshman Sabrina Capannolo's solid 6-0, 6-4 win over UW's Saskia Nauenberg.
HEAD COACH Sheila McInerney: Sheila McInerney enters her 20th season after leading last year's team to its seventh consecutive (15 of the past 16 seasons) NCAA Round of 16 appearance and a No. 17 national ranking. McInerney also guided Arizona State to eight quarterfinal appearances in her tenure, and has made the NCAA tournament in 18 of her 19 seasons. The 2003 season saw McInerney accomplish another milestone in her illustrious career, earning her 300th career win. She also coached another player to All-American acclaim and helped place four players on the Pac-10 All-Academic teams, tying a school record for most student-athletes selected. McInerney, who owns a career record of 307-190, posted three 20-win seasons (1986, '90, '01) to her credit and guided the Sun Devils to 16 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. The Sun Devils have reached the NCAA quarterfinals eight times under McInerney and have finished in the top-10 five of the past seven seasons and an astounding 13 times in her 19 seasons.
YOUNG/NEW FACES: McInerney welcomed six freshmen players to this year's team with many of them having contributed in both the singles and doubles lineups: Ebru Burduroglu (Istanbul, Turkey), Sabrina Capannolo (Las Vegas, Nev.), Wendy Pilecka (Pribram Czech Rep.), Kady Pooler (Laguna Niguel, Calif.), Rebecca Rankin (Purley, England), Vana Tomas (Split Croatia).
TOUGH LUCK: The young Devils are having a difficult time this season closing out duals. Five of ASU's last six losses have been by just one point, all to highly-ranked teams.
SCHEDULE STRENGTH: Once again the Devils will face a strong non-conference slate (maybe the strongest ever) along with the always powerful Pac-10 Conference. Fifteen of ASU's 21 opponents earned NCAA bids last year, while 12 of ASU's opponents this year are in the top-25. Additionally, the Pac-10 comprises five of the nation's top-11 teams.
DEVILS IN THE RANKINGS: For the first time since the 1996 season, the Sun Devils are not ranked in the top-25 as they come in at No. 41 in the April 6th Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings, administered by the ITA. Junior Joslynn Burkett, after stringing together several quality wins at the No. 1 slot, enters the singles rankings at No. 88. In doubles, Cindy Sureephong and Wendy Pilecka check in at No. 55, while the freshmen doubles team of Kady Pooler and Rebecca Rankin are 58th in the country.