May 10, 2000
TEMPE, Ariz. - The 11th-ranked Arizona State women's tennis team (12-7, 4-4 Pac-10) advances to its 15th NCAA Championships and will host the first two rounds this weekend, May 13-14, at Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe. The Sun Devils are one of the 16 teams selected to host first and second-round matches for the four-team NCAA Regional. Mississippi State will face Oregon in the opening round on Sat., May 13 at 9 a.m. MST (noon EDT). Arizona State vs. Army will follow at noon. The winners will face each other in second-round action on Sun., May 14 at 10 a.m.
NCAA TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS:
The 2000 NCAA Team Championship is composed of 64 teams. First and second-round matches will be played at campus sites May 12-14. The remaining 16 teams will travel to Pepperdine University's campus in Malibu, Calif., May 18-21 to determine the national champion.
THE OPPONENTS:
Team brackets for the 2000 NCAA Women's Tennis Championships were announced on May 4. Arizona State will host a regional featuring Army, Mississippi State and Oregon. ASU and Oregon have faced each other previously, as they hail from the same conference, but neither has faced Army or MSU, nor have those latter schools faced each other. Here's a team-by-team look at the Regional opponents:
ARMY:
Although the Cadets are unranked, they earned an automatic berth into the Tournament for the second straight year with their Patriot League Conference title. As the regional's third seed, this squad brings a 16-10 overall record and a seven-match winning streak into nationals, despite recent injuries to two starters. Annie Weber has not placed since April 18, when she retired mid-match due to a back injury, and Melissa Sentelle missed the conference tournament with groin and hamstring injuries. Both are returning to action for the NCAA Championships. Also in the lineup is Ann Collier, a freshman who broke the school record for single season victories with her 26th in late April. The Cadets will be making their first trip to the state of Arizona.
MISSISSIPPI STATE:
Mississippi State, ranked 34th, finished its regular season with an even 10-10 record and will be the Regional's second seed. The Lady Bulldogs reached the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament and are led by junior Amelie Detriviere, who is ranked 93rd by the ITA. This will be MSU's second straight appearance in the NCAAs.
OREGON:
Oregon, the regional's fourth seed and 53rd ranked team by the ITA, finished the regular season with an 8-14 record and placed ninth in the Pac-10 standings with a 1-7 mark. The Ducks are led by freshman Monica Giecyz, ranked 73rd in the country, while Alina Wygonowska is 76th. Oregon is making its second straight and third appearance ever in the NCAA Tournament.
1999 CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES:
No. 2 Seed Stanford claimed its 10th title, eliminating defending champion Florida on May 23 on the Gators' home court in Gainesville, Fla. It was the second title for the Cardinal in three years. San Diego's Zuzana Lesenarova defeated Stanford's Marissa Irvin for the singles title. California's Amanda Augustus and Amy Jensen won for the second straight year in the doubles championship, defeating Georgia's Vanessa Castellano and Marissa Catlin for the title. ASU advanced to the round of 16 before falling to California, 5-4.
ASU AT THE NCAAs:
Arizona State has advanced as a team to the NCAA tournament in each of the last 15 seasons, beginning in 1985. Additionally, the Sun Devils have had representation in the singles championships each of those years and in doubles 14 of 15 years. ASU has also advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals in four of the last nine seasons (1992, '93, '95, '97). The Sun Devils earned national championships in 1971, '72 and '74. Last year the team fell to California 5-4 in the Round of 16.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP EXPANSION:
The field for the NCAA Championships was expanded to include 64 teams last season. First and second-round matches will be conducted at 16 on-campus locations on May 12-14, with the 16 winners advancing to the third round scheduled to begin May 18 at Pepperdine's Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center in Malibu, Calif.
INFORMATION/RESULTS:
www.TheSunDevils.com will follow Arizona State through the NCAA Team, Singles and Doubles Tournaments. Championship information can also be found at www.NCAAchampionships.com and www.pepperdine.edu. Information is also available on InfoConnection. The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/563-1133 (pin code 1915). Brackets and schedules are located in cell 1548 while ticket information is in cell 1549. Championships results will also appear in the June 5 issue of The NCAA News.
HOME SWEET HOME:
The Sun Devil tennis program began the season with the new Robson Player Facility. Located on the southwest corner of the existing Whiteman Tennis Center, the spacious facility features new player locker rooms, offices, a training room and a shaded viewing terrace for spectators. Arizona State posted a 8-3 record this year at home, and over the past four seasons, is 46-16 (.742) when playing in Tempe. This season's losses came to sixth-ranked UCLA on Jan. 29, top-ranked Stanford on March 3 and No. 34 Washington on April 7.
NCAA SINGLES/DOUBLES TOURNAMENT:
After the team championships, a 64-player individual bracket and a 32-duo doubles bracket will determine singles and doubles champions May 22-26. Arizona State will send Allison Bradshaw and Karin Palme in singles and the duo of Bradshaw and Celena McCoury will compete in doubles.
ALLISON BRADSHAW:
After being sidelined for seven weeks with a stress fracture in her foot, Allison Bradshaw returned in mid-April and has since been named a first team All-Pac-10 selection. Although she dropped her first two matches, she took second-ranked Marissa Irvin of Stanford to three sets, becoming only the second person this season to take the Cardinal sophomore the distance. Bradshaw is the highest ranked player for the Sun Devils in the ITA standings, 15th-best in the country. She and teammate Celena McCoury are the only doubles tandem ranked on the squad and are currently tied for 18th. Bradshaw has played the No. 1 spot for the Sun Devils all season and is 7-4 in dual matches and is 19-7 overall. The sophomore from San Diego, Calif., played in the ITA Summer Championships, making her way to the third round before retiring due to injury. As a freshman in 1998-99, Bradshaw earned All-America honors in singles and doubles, receiving a top-16 seed in the NCAA Championship singles tournament and a top-8 seed, with former teammate Katy Propstra, in the doubles competition. She currently carries a 50-23 career record.
KARIN PALME:
Junior Karin Palme, from Guadalajara, Mexico, brings international experience to the Sun Devil squad due to her appearances in the 1998 Fed Cup, 1998 Central American Games and 1995 Pan American Games representing Mexico. Ranked 24th by the ITA, she currently carries an 11-8 dual, 21-12 overall record, playing mostly in the No. 2 spot during singles competition. She went 3-5 vs. ranked oppoents at the No. 1 position, where she played for seven weeks in place of the injured Bradshaw. She was recently named an honorable mention All-Pac-10 selection. She and teammate Kerry Giardino are undefeated in doubles compeition this season, 10-0 in dual matches, 11-0 overall at the No. 3 spot.
BRADSHAW/MCCOURY:
Bradshaw, a sophomore from San Diego, Calif., and McCoury, a junior from Canton, Ohio, went 7-3 during the dual season and 15-3 overall, while playing No. 1 Doubles for the Sun Devils. The tandem won its first nine matches and won the Pac-10 Indoors and the ASU Winter Invitational tournaments. During the season, they defeated three top-10 teams and eight ranked opponents overall. In their last outing, Bradshaw and McCoury fell in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 Championships.
PAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Stanford finished the regular season as the Pac-10 team champion at 8-0 for the second straight season and earned its 13th consecutive title. ASU tied for fourth matching last year's 4-4 conference mark. The 32-player singles draw consisted of three players from each of the nine schools, with five additional competitors selected by a committee of coaches based upon the participants' records. ASU sent Allison Bradshaw, Faye DeVera, Karin Palme and Megan Yeats. The 16-team doubles draw had one doubles team from each school and seven additional teams selected by the women's games committee. ASU's representatives were Bradshaw/McCourey and Yeats/Brown. Bradshaw fell to UCLA's Sara Walker in the singles final while Arizona Lindsay Blau and Michelle Gough won the doubles tournament.
IN THE PAC:
The Sun Devils played in the toughest conference in the country. All six of the southern Pac-10 schools are ranked in the top 21, three of which are in the top 10. Stanford and California are ranked first and fifth, respectively, while UCLA is ninth and Arizona State holds down 11th. USC is 12th, followed by Arizona in the 21st spot. The northern Pac-10 schools are not far behind. Washington is ranked 25th, Oregon is 53rd and Washington State is 60th. Individually, five of the top 10 players come from our conference and in the 100 athletes that are ranked, 26 hail from the Pac-10. A similar ratio is found in the doubles rankings, where five leage tandems are in the top 10 and nine are in the top 50.
IN THE RANKINGS:
Although the Sun Devils' stay at the No. 2 spot in the country lasted briefly, as a miscalculation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association moved the squad one spot too high, the No. 3 ranking ASU earned in the March 22 edition was still the program's highest ever. During the previous week, the team moved from No. 7 to No. 4 surpassing the program's previous highest ranking, a No. 6 mark achieved during the 1997 season. After dropping five of the last seven matches, the squad slipped to 11th. Individual rankings were published on May 3, placing sophomore Allison Bradshaw up eight spots to 15th-best in the country. Junior Karin Palme vaulted up to No. 28 from her 70th-place just last month and is currently 24th. Freshman Megan Yeats remained at 81st. In doubles, the tandem of Bradshaw and Celena McCoury are ranked 18th, up four spots from the last edition of rankings.
MCINERNEY CLAIMS 250TH WIN:
Sheila McInerney, in her 16th season at the helm of the Sun Devil program, earned her 250th career win as ASU defeated Oregon on Feb. 19. McInerney, who is averaging 16 wins per season, has led her team the past two seasons to back-to-back NCAA Round-of-16 finishes. ASU has made NCAA appearances in 15 of McInerney's 16 seasons, including six quarterfinal finishes. During her tenure at ASU, the 1997 ITA National Coach of the Year owns a 256-153 record and has been a two-time ITA/West Region Coach of the Year honoree. Additionally, McInerney has tutored 18 Sun Devil All-Americans, 11 All-Pac-10 players and 22 conference All-Academic honorees.
FRESHMEN OF INFLUENCE:
Freshmen Mhairi Brown and Megan Yeats are the only members on the team to notch 20 wins on the season as Brown reached the milestone vs. Washington State three weeks ago. Yeats currently posts a team-high 15-3 dual record while Brown is 12-6. Yeats is currently ranked 81st in the country and has an overall mark of 24-9, winning 18 of 19 matches inlcuding a 13-match win streak untill she was stopped twice in the Bay Area two weeks ago. Brown boasts a 23-11 overall mark, second on the team. Her 10-match win streak was halted by Stanford's Gabriela Lastra on March 3. Both records are divided among the third through sixth spots. The pair also team up at the No. 2 doubles position where they have posted a 7-7 dual mark and are 14-9 overall. They debuted in two editions of the ITA Rankings at No. 44 but are currently unranked.
STREAKING:
Since Arizona State began keeping team records in 1967, the Sun Devils have only had one losing season in those 33 years. Losing streaks are hard to come by for such an established program, which made this year's recent three-match skid something to talk about. ASU dropped consecutive matches to USC, Texas and Washington before defeating Washington State on April 8. The last time the Sun Devils dropped three straight was at the end of the 1997-98 season, falling to Texas, Stanford and California. Dating back to 1986, the Lady Devils' longest win drought was six matches, occurring in both the 1987 and '89 seasons.
SWEEPING THE COMPETITION:
On four occasions this season, Arizona State won a team match without dropping a set in singles competition, nor going to a tiebreaker in doubles action. The Sun Devils most recently accomplished this feat against in-state rival Arizona on Feb. 26, submitting only 19 sets between six singles matches and three doubles. Arizona State also notched such success over New Mexico, Tulsa and Texas Tech.
ITA Rankings
Team
as of May 10, 2000
| Rk. | Team | Record |
| 1. | Stanford | 25-0 |
| 2. | Georgia | 21-2 |
| 3. | Wake Forest | 21-2 |
| 4. | Florida | 21-2 |
| 5. | California | 17-6 |
| 6. | Duke | 21-5 |
| 7. | Pepperdine | 20-4 |
| 8. | Texas | 20-5 |
| 9. | UCLA | 14-8 |
| 10. | Vanderbilt | 20-5 |
| 11. | ARIZONA STATE | 12-7 |
| 12. | USC | 15-8 |
| 13. | Notre Dame | 21-6 |
| 14. | Northwestern | 22-4 |
| 15. | William & Mary | 19-8 |
| 16. | Mississippi | 15-7 |
| 17. | South Alabama | 19-3 |
| 18. | Tennessee | 18-11 |
| 19. | Baylor | 21-4 |
| 20. | South Carolina | 15-11 |
| 21. | Arizona | 9-11 |
| 22. | Florida State | 16-8 |
| 23. | Clemson | 15-6 |
| 24. | TCU | 21-4 |
| 25. | Washington | 12-9 |
Individual as of May 3, 2000
| Singles | ||
| Rk. | Name | Team |
| 1. | Marissa Irvin | Stanford |
| 2. | Sara Walker | UCLA |
| 3. | Laura Granville | Stanford |
| 4. | Kristina Kraszewski | Washington |
| 5. | Aarthi Venkatesan | Georgia |
| 15. | Alison Bradshaw | Arizona State |
| 24. | Karin Palme | Arizona State |
| 81. | Megan Yeats | Arizona State |
| Doubles | ||
| Rk. | Name | Team |
| 1. | Lesenarova/Valykova | San Diego |
| 2. | Catlin/Grey | Georgia |
| 3. | Colosio/Mores | Louisiana State |
| 4. | Ashley/Irvin | Stanford |
| 3. | Curran/Jensen | California |
| t18. | Bradshaw/McCoury | Arizona State |
The 2000 Pac-10 Season
Final Pac-10 Team Standings
| School | Conference | Overall | |
| 1. | Stanford | 8-0 | 25-0 |
| 2. | California | 6-2 | 17-6 |
| UCLA | 6-2 | 14-8 | |
| 4. | USC | 4-2 | 15-8 |
| ARIZONA STATE | 4-4 | 12-7 | |
| 6. | Washington | 3-5 | 12-9 |
| Arizona | 3-5 | 9-11 | |
| 8. | Washington State | 1-7 | 10-12 |
| 9. | Oregon | 1-7 | 8-14 |
| ASU's Pac-10 Season (4-4) | |||
| Jan. 28 | USC* (10) | W | 6-3 |
| Jan. 29 | UCLA* (6) | L | 3-6 |
| Feb. 19 | @ Oregon* (40) | W | 5-1 |
| April 7 | Washington* (34) | L | 5-4 |
| April 8 | Washington State* (54) | W | 7-2 |
| April 14 | @ California* (4) | L | 7-2 |
| April 15 | @ Stanford* (1) | L | 7-1 |
| April 22 | @ Arizona* (20) | W | 8-1 |
ASU at the Pac-10 Singles Championships
April 27-30, Ojai, California
Round of 32
(6) Allison Bradshaw (ASU) def. Colleen Gray (WASH) 6-4, 6-0
(8) Karin Palme (ASU) def. Janice Nyland (ORE) 3-6, 6-3, 6-1
Christina Fusano (CAL) def. Megan Yeats (ASU) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3
Faye DeVera (ASU) def. (2) Kristina Kraszewski (WASH) 6-2, 6-0
Round of 16
(6) Allison Bradshaw (ASU) def. Uzma Khan (ARIZ) 1-6, 6-2, 7-5
(8) Karin Palme (ASU) def. Teryn Ashley (STAN) 7-5, 6-3
Kara Warkentin (USC) def. Faye DeVera (ASU) 6-3, 6-3
Quarterfinals
(6) Allison Bradshaw (ASU) def. (4) Amy Jensen (CAL) 7-6 (4), 6-3
(3) Sara Walker (UCLA) def. (8) Karin Palme (ASU) 6-4, 6-3
Semifinals
(6) Allison Bradshaw (ASU) def. Keiko Tokuda (STAN) 6-2, 6-4
Finals
(3) Sara Walker (UCLA) def. (6) Allison Bradshaw (ASU) 6-1, 6-1
ASU at the Pac-10 Doubles Championships
Aprl 27-30, Ojai, California
Round of 16
Bradshaw/McCoury (ASU) def. Abel/Khan (ARIZ) 9-7
Borgersen/Jensen (CAL) def. Yeats/Brown (ASU) 8-4
Quarterfinals
Bradshaw/McCoury (ASU) def. Kraszewski/Wu (WASH) 8-3
Semifinals
Brymer/Warkentin (USC) def. Bradshaw/McCoury (ASU) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
ASU in the NCAA Championships
Arizona State's match record is 9-14 (.391) since the NCAA Tournament went to its present format in 1982.
1985 Oklahoma City, Okla. (0-1)
USC 8, Arizona State 1
1986 Austin, Texas (1-1)
Arizona State 5, Clemson 4
USC 5, Arizona State 1
1988 Los Angeles, Calif. (1-1)
Arizona State 5, Miami (Fla.) 4
Florida State 6, Arizona State 0
1989 Gainesville, Fla. (0-1)
USC 7, Arizona State 1
1990 Gainesville, Fla. (0-1)
Pepperdine 5, Arizona State 1
1991 Stanford, Calif. (0-1)
Duke 5, Arizona State 1
1992
Stanford, Calif. (1-1)
Arizona State 5, Arizona 2
Texas 5, Arizona State 3
1993 Gainsville, Fla. (1-1)
Arizona State 5, UCLA 1
Florida 5, Arizona State 1
1994 Athens, Ga. (0-1)
Kansas 5, Arizona State 3
1995 Malibu, Calif. (1-1)
Arizona State 5, USC 2
Texas 5, Arizona State 1
1996 Malibu, Calif. (1-1)
Arizona State 5, San Diego State 4
USC 5, Arizona State 3
1997 Stanford, Calif. (1-1)
Arizona State 5, Mississippi 1
Florida 5, Arizona State 1
1998 South Bend, Ind. (0-1)
Mississippi 5, Arizona State 2
1999 Gainesville, Fla. (2-1)
Arizona State 6, Northern Arizona 0
Arizona State 5, Northwestern 2
California 5, Arizona State 4
1994 Athens, Ga. (0-1)
Kansas 5, Arizona State 3
1995 Malibu, Calif. (1-1)
Arizona State 5, USC 2
Texas 5, Arizona State 1
1996 Malibu, Calif. (1-1)
Arizona State 5, San Diego State 4
USC 5, Arizona State 3
1997 Stanford, Calif. (1-1)
Arizona State 5, Mississippi 1
Florida 5, Arizona State 1
1998 South Bend, Ind. (0-1)
Mississippi 5, Arizona State 2
1999 Gainesville, Fla. (2-1)
Arizona State 6, Northern Arizona 0
Arizona State 5, Northwestern 2
California 5, Arizona State 4