ASU tennis picked up a win in its first road match of Pac-12 play, sweeping the Colorado Buffalos 7-0 in Boulder, CO.
"It's always tough to win on the road in this conference, especially getting that first one," said head coach Sheila McInerney in a phone call. "It was a little bit tougher than the score indicated."
Coming off just the second win over Stanford in program history, the No. 26 Sun Devils picked up right where they left off. They grabbed the doubles point when seniors seniors Desirae Krawczyk and Stephanie Vlad secured the point on court two with a 6-3 win to give ASU a 1-0 lead.
The Sun Devils, who improved to 8-4 overall and 2-1 in conference, have now won the doubles point in nine of their 12 matches so far this spring. McInerney said winning to doubles point helps to ease the team's nerves.
"You have to get into the match, you have to create your own momentum a little bit," she said. "It's certainly advantageous to get that point, but that's just the beginning."
Singles went just as well for ASU as the team took all six matches to grab the 7-0 sweep. No. 23 Krawczyk was first off the court with a straight set victory over Colorado's top player, junior Nuria Ormeño Ruiz. Freshman Sammi Hampton and junior Gussie O'Sullivan followed with straight set victories of their own to clinch the team competition for the Sun Devils.
Hampton is now 1-1 since returning from a foot injury that kept her sidelined for two matches; however, McInerney said she isn't completely back to form.
"You can tell (Hampton's) playing with a little bit of discomfort right now," McInerney said. "But she's a trooper; she's a little bit rusty but she battled hard today."
Junior Kassidy Jump did her part as well, grabbing a victory against freshman Jeannez Daniel on court number two 6-4, 6-3. Now ranked 54th nationally, Jump has won three of her last four matches, including an upset over then No. 5 freshman Klara Fabikova of top-ranked California.
"I think that win really got her over the hump," McInerney said. "When Kass is playing well, she can compete with anyone in the country, and she's playing well for us right now.
Although ASU breezed through singles for most of the day, seniors Ebony Panoho and Stephanie Vlad had to work to earn their respective victories the hard way. The two seniors each dropped their first set before coming back to get the win. Panoho took a third and final set 6-0 over Colorado senior Alex Aiello, while Vlad won a ten-point tie breaker to wrap up the match.
The Sun Devils now get a travel day Saturday before another tough road matchup against No. 63 Utah Sunday in Salt Lake City. First serve is slated for noon.
Reach the reporter at mfaye@asu.edu or follow @mattGfaye on Twitter.
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