April 28, 2006
Ojai, Calif. - The Arizona State Sun Devils found themselves represented in the semifinals of both doubles brackets after the smoke cleared Friday afternoon at the second day of the Pac-10 Individual Championships at the 106th annual Ojai Tournament in California. The Sun Devils' number one doubles team of Kady Pooler and Roxanne Clarke advanced to the semifinals of the Pac-10 doubles Championship while their teammates Rebecca Rankin and Wendy Pilecka advanced to the semifinals of the invitational bracket.
In their first round match, Pooler (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) and Clarke (Cape Town, South Africa), ranked 21 by the ITA, defeated Amy Toth and Marjolein van de Ven of Washington, 8-3, to advance to the quarterfinal round. In the next round of eight, Pooler and Clarke met the No. 34-ranked pair of Dianne Matias and Carine Vermeulen of USC and came away with their school-record 26th doubles victory by an 8-4 score. The Devils will now face Stanford's Alice Barnes and Anne Yelsey, the top-ranked team in the nation, in the semi-finals in what is a rematch of two weeks ago when Pooler and Clarke earned a 9-8 victory in the tiebreaker at the Whiteman Center in Tempe.
In the invitational draw, Pilecka (Pribram, Czech Republic) and Rankin (Purley, England) faced Jesica Shu and Cristina Visico of Cal in the quarterfinal round after drawing a first-round bye. The Devils earned an 8-2 victory to place them in Saturday's semifinal round against UCLA's Ashley Joelson and Tracy Lin.
In singles play, sophomore Jessica Leitch (Dallas, Texas) saw her run through the invitational bracket come to an end with a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Claire Ilcinkas of Cal in the quarterfinal round. Pooler, playing in the back draw consolation, defeated WSU's Aleksandra Cekic in ASU's other action, 6-0, 6-2.
The Pac-10 Tournament continues on Saturday with the semifinal rounds of both the singles and doubles tournaments and wrap up on Sunday with the championship rounds. Following that, the Sun Devils will return to Tempe to await their fate in the NCAA Selection Show taking place on May 2. The Sun Devils are looking for their nineteenth consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament when it begins on May 11 at regional host sites.