This weekend, the Sun Devils women's team took down No. 17 Stanford and No. 12 Cal for the first time in the same weekend in program history while the men's team took down Cal.
Women's
The ASU women's tennis team pulled off back-to-back upset wins in Tempe over the weekend with a walk-off 4-2 clinch over No. 17 Stanford and a 4-3 victory against No. 12 Cal at the Whiteman Tennis Center.
After being down 3-1, losing the doubles point and courts two and three in singles, freshman Patricija Spaka, sophomore Giulia Morlet and senior Cali Jankowski brought the team back from behind on Friday afternoon. Spaka handled court five with a 6-4, 6-2 win. Morlet orchestrated a second-set comeback to win 6-2, 7-6 while Jankowski scored a comeback win in three sets, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
On Saturday, for just the third time in head coach Sheila McInerney's 38-year career, the Sun Devils defeated Stanford. ASU took the doubles point and didn't look back. Morlet highlighted the afternoon with a game-winning 7-5, 6-4 victory over No. 13 Connie Ma.
"These wins are huge for us," McInerney said. "It was a great weekend for us."
ASU will look to carry its momentum on the road up next. The team is 0-4 in away conference play as they face Colorado on April 8 and Utah two days later.
Men's
The only game this week for the Sun Devils men's team was a good one with a 4-2 win over Cal on Friday at the Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe.
ASU started off strong, securing the doubles point with wins from co-captains Fabien Salle and Max McKennon, followed by juniors Christian Lerby and George Stoupe.
"The doubles were really good today," Head Coach Matt Hill said. "We were much more aggressive, which is something we have been struggling to do the past few weeks."
The singles matches went well for the Sun Devils. Junior Jacob Bullard defeated Carl Emil Overbeck in straight sets 7-5, 6-1, while Salle defeated Phillip Hjorth in straight sets 6-4, 7-5.
The best match of the night was freshman Murphy Cassone's win and first clinch over Golden Bear Yuta Kikuchi. Cassone won in straight sets 6-3, 7-6, (7-5), but Kikuchi was tied with Cassone multiple times in the second set, and it could have easily gone to a third set.
"He made really good adjustments in the second set," Cassone said. "I knew it was coming down to the wire, and I knew I had to tune out the noise so it was a nice win."
The Sun Devils take on Stanford on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Tempe in a rematch of last season's Pac-12 semifinal where the Sun Devils upset the No.1 Cardinal team to make their first Pac-12 final in the program's history.
Reach the reporters at vdeange1@asu.edu and dstipano@asu.edu and follow @vdeangelis2024 and @dstipanovichh on Twitter.
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Vincent Deangelis is a full-time reporter for the sports department at The State Press. He has previously worked for Arizona PBS and AZPreps365.com.
