ASU women's tennis continued its winning ways by securing two victories over the past week to remain perfect in Pac-12 play. Men's tennis split its two games at home this past week, including a shutout victory.
Women
ASU women’s tennis went on the road and defeated Washington State 6-1 on Friday and won against Washington 5-2 on Sunday.
The Sun Devils secured the doubles point against Washington State by winning consecutive matches after dropping their first.
After redshirt senior Sammi Hampton and freshman Marianna Argyrokastriti lost their doubles match 6-3, ASU's two remaining pairs — seniors Ilze Hattingh and Lauryn John-Baptiste, along with freshman Giulia Morlet and junior Domenika Turkovic — each won their respective matches.
Hampton defeated junior Hikaru Sato 6-3, 6-4 in her singles match. Argyrokastriti lost 6-4, 6-2 against junior Savanna Ly-Nguyen, the only singles match the Sun Devils dropped.
Turkovic defeated fifth-year senior Melisa Ates 6-2, 7-5 to earn the third point of the match for the Sun Devils. John-Baptiste secured the Sun Devil win with a 6-0, 7-6 victory over freshman Fifa Kumhom.
The two teams decided to play out the remaining singles matches, with Morlet winning her match 7-6, 6-2 and Hattingh winning hers 6-3, 1-6, 7-6.
ASU quickly went down in doubles against Washington. Hattingh and John-Baptiste were shut out by senior Vanessa Wong and junior Sedona Gallagher, and Morlet and Turkovic lost against freshmen Tara Chilton and Sarah-Maude Fortin.
Turkovic secured the first point of the day for ASU by defeating freshman Yolanda Lin 6-2, 6-4 in singles. Morlet also won her singles match by defeating junior Zoey Weil 6-2, 6-1.
John-Baptiste and Hampton both won their singles matches. John-Baptiste defeated Gallagher, 6-2, 6-4, and Hampton defeated Fortin 6-3, 6-4.
Hattingh was the only Sun Devil to lose their singles match, falling to Wong 6-3, 6-2. Argyrokastriti needed a tiebreaking third set to defeat Chilton 6-0, 5-7, 1-0.
ASU will take on Cal on March 20 at noon MST in Berkeley, California.
Men
No. 17 ASU men's tennis split two non-conference matches at home this week, falling 4-3 to Virginia Commonwealth University on Friday and defeating the University of Nevada Las Vegas 7-0 on Sunday to move to 12-3 on the year.
The Sun Devils' bout against then-undefeated VCU began on Friday after being delayed for several hours due to rain. After playing to a 3-3 tie, the remainder of the match was pushed to Saturday due to late-night rain.
The Sun Devils began the match by securing the doubles point thanks to wins from their No. 1 doubles pair, senior Nathan Ponwith and sophomore George Stoupe, and their No. 3 pair, senior Andrea Bolla and sophomore Christian Lerby.
In singles play, ASU secured two of the first three victories to take a 3-1 advantage. After Lerby lost at No. 5 singles, Ponwith won 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 1 spot. Senior Makey Rakotomalala picked up the next ASU victory after winning his singles match in three sets.
However, subsequent three-set losses at Nos. 2 and 6 by Bolla and sophomore Jonah Wilson, respectively, left the result up to Stoupe at the No. 4 spot on Saturday.
Stoupe ultimately fell in three sets to give VCU the 4-3 win.
ASU came back the next day and shut out UNLV to get back into the win column after suffering two consecutive losses for the first time this season.
The Sun Devils quickly clinched the doubles point after Bolla and freshman Moritz Hoffmann won 6-2 at the No. 3 spot and senior Tim Ruehl and Rakotomalala won 6-4 at No. 2.
In singles play, five Sun Devils won in straight sets. Freshman Spencer Brachman secured the first victory of his college career at No. 6 singles, and Stoupe rallied from a first set defeat to win in three sets at No. 4.
ASU will face Utah State next in Tempe on March 21 at 2 p.m. MST.
Reach the reporters at lhertz@asu.edu and cbreber@asu.edu, and follow @laurenrachell_ and @carsobi on Twitter.
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