April 19, 2005
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ON TAP: Six Arizona State University women's tennis players and three doubles teams will travel to Ojai, California to compete in the annual Pac-10 Singles and Doubles Championship, Thursday-Sunday (April 21-24).
PAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS: The tournament is not a team event, but a singles and doubles competition ... the Sun Devils will feature Joslynn Burkett, Sabrina Capannolo and Kady Pooler in the singles championship bracket, while Jessica Leitch, Rebecca Rankin and Vana Tomas will compete in the invitational singles championship ... the doubles teams of Colalillo/Pooler, Capannolo/Leitch and Burkett/Rankin will challenge for the Pac-10 doubles title ... Adria Engel claimed the only ASU Pac-10 singles title back in 2001 ... to obtain results from the Pac-10 Championships, log on to www.ojaitourney.org.
DYNAMIC DUO: Sophomore Kady Pooler and senior Lauren Colalillo have combined to win 22 of their 29 dual singles this year. Pooler has won 14 of her past 17 duals, while Colalillo has won eight of her 12 duals (all in straight sets except one). Currently ranked 24th in doubles, the pair are also excelling as the Devils' No. 1 team. Overall, Pooler and Colalillo are 11-6 (won seven of their last 10 duals), including impressive wins over No. 3 UCLA (Bercek/Zalameda), No. 15 Oregon (Dieskova/Panova) and No. 18 Texas (Ruckert/Strohm).
AT THE HELM: Sheila McInerney is in her 21st season at the helm of the Sun Devil program after leading last year's team to its eighth consecutive (18 of the past 20 seasons) NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in 2004. McInerney has also guided Arizona State to eight quarterfinal appearances in her tenure, and has made the NCAA tournament in 19 of her 20 seasons. ASU is one of only five schools (Stanford, Duke, Georgia, Tennessee) to have reached the NCAA Sweet 16 or better for the past eight years. McInerney, who owns a career record of 319-201, posted three 20-win seasons (1986, '90, '01) to her credit and guided the Sun Devils to 17 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. ASU has finished in the top-10 five of the past eight seasons, and an astounding 13 times in her 20 seasons.
SCHEDULE STRENGTH: Once again, ASU played a strong non-conference slate along with the always powerful Pac-10 Conference. Nine of ASU's last 14 opponents carried Top-25 rankings, while 15 of ASU's 20 opponents earned NCAA bids to last year's tournament (five to the Round of 16/four to the quarterfinals). Also, 11 of ASU's 2005 opponents are currently in the Top-25, including four of the Top-10 teams.
DEVILS IN THE RANKINGS: Despite winning their last four duals, including knocking off two Top-25 teams, the Sun Devils dropped back from No. 24 to No. 29 in the April 19 ITA computer rankings. In doubles, the team of Colalillo and Pooler also dropped back from No. 20 to No. 24, while the duo of Burkett and Pilecka moved into the national rankings at No. 45. Additionally, Capannolo made a big jump to No. 63 in the singles rankings after not being ranked.
NCAA SELECTIONS: The NCAA will announce the field of 64 and the 16 first and second round sites on Wednesday, May 4 at 1:30 p.m. (PT) on ESPNews. ASU will be looking to advance to its 18th consecutive NCAA Tournament.