The ASU women's tennis team will continue postseason play with a home-court advantage as it hosts an NCAA regional at the Whiteman Tennis Center on Saturday and Sunday.
The men's team also begins the NCAA regionals as it takes off for Stanford as the NCAA team championships begin.
The women's team takes on Illinois-Chicago on Saturday at noon in the first round. No. 18 ASU enters the regional with a 9-10 record and is seeded 15th out of 64 teams. The teams that win on Saturday advance to the second round on Sunday at 10 a.m.
Senior Mhairi Brown said she was glad they get to play at home and said she feels there are many advantages to hosting the regional.
"We were surprised that we got it but the heat will be an advantage and it will be nice to play people we haven't played before," Brown said.
Junior Cindy Sureephong also said she feels it is great to be at home, especially this time of the year.
"I was so relieved," Sureephong said. "It takes off a lot of stress with finals and everything."
Head coach Sheila McInerney said she is not planning on changing anything. Instead, she said, she is trying to get in some good practices before the weekend.
"We will keep our lineup the same as it was against the University of Arizona at the end of the season," McInerney said. "We are excited to be hosting a regional for the fifth-straight year.
"Practice has been good the past week and we will start playing more points and sets as we get closer to Saturday."
Sureephong said she is expecting regionals to be hard but she said she has personal reasons for wanting to make it to the team championships in Florida.
"I have no idea what to expect [at regionals]," Sureephong said. "I think [Illinois-Chicago] will come out strong and give us a run for it. We have to take it to them. My whole goal this year was to go to Florida because I am from there."
The men will play Fresno State at 9 a.m., in Palo Alto. The Sun Devils (9-11) are ready to go, according to head coach Lou Belken.
"We're pleased to be in the NCAA's and going to Stanford. It's a great place to go," Belken said. "Looking forward to playing our first match against Fresno State and we really need to focus on that one and go from there."
Belken said a goal of the team is to waste no time getting to the second round and avoid mistakes ASU has made in previous years.
"We have to take care of business in the first round," Belken said. "We have been successful with that through the years but we stumbled there last year and we don't want to stumble twice."
The men's team received some good news heading into the weekend when it was announced that sophomore Clint Letcher would be playing in the upcoming tournament. Severe shin splints have kept him out of competition for three weeks.
ASU was also glad to hear that juniors Chris Stewart and Olivier Charroin were among the 32 doubles teams to play in the doubles championships following the NCAA tournament. Belken said that it was a great honor for them.
Belken said everyone on the team is fatigued by the strenuous schedule they have endured all year plus they have the added stress of finals on top of tournament play.
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Reach the reporter at kelley.karnes@asu.edu.
