The Sun Devils fell just short of another regular season tournament win, but coach Matt Hill says the team has already come a long way from where they were to start the season.
Chris Gleason - Reporter:
ASU men’s tennis is coming off a trip to Indian Wells, California, where it took part in the collegiate tournament at the BNP Paribas Open — one of tennis’s biggest annual tournaments worldwide.
Andrea Bolla - ASU tennis player
I had the chance to see the final between Federer and Del Potro and I could see the high level and the professionality —the professionalism, sorry — that they had on the court. So yeah, I mean we try to duplicate and replicate what they are doing but obviously it's not easy.
Gleason - Reporter:
The 34th-ranked Sun Devils came up just one individual match short of winning their third tournament in as many appearances. They’ve improved after losing their first three matches of the year, having won 10 of 13 since then and playing tough against two of the country’s top teams in Stanford and Ohio State.
Matt Hill - ASU tennis head coach:
We got some really strong tennis players, winning tournaments to them is not a new task. It's something that they're accustomed to. Obviously playing in a team format is a very new task, that has been a big learning curve for them but I feel like in the two months that they have been playing college tennis they've grown you know exponentially.
Gleason - Reporter:
ASU’s roster features nine players from nine different countries, and Hill admits the group mentality wasn’t there early in the season.
Hill - ASU tennis head coach:
Scouting report on us early, like mid-January after we played those good teams, it got out that yeah, it's a group of individuals. Which, I think one of the guys said in a team meeting this weekend at Indian Wells that was probably pretty accurate.
It's a big factor when you're in battles with really good teams and they're all cohesive, they're all one unit and they're all pushing toward each other and you kind of feel like you're out there on your own, that's not easy I don't care how good you are.
Gleason - Reporter:
But now, Hill believes the improved chemistry within the diverse team has been a key to better results and has helped reestablish the program after its 10-year hiatus.
Hill - ASU tennis head coach
They're learning what it means like to come together as a group and compete together as a group, that's still new, I mean they're still working through that but it's ten times, fifty times better than it was in January.
Reporting for The State Press, I’m Chris Gleason.
Reach the reporter at ccgleaso@asu.edu or follow @realchrisgleas1 on Twitter.
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