(Photo: Marie Obsuna/ Sun Devil Athletics)
After ending regular season play with a 4-0 victory over the Arizona Wildcats, the Arizona State men’s tennis team (14-9, 3-4 Pac-12) heads to Ojai, Calif. this Thursday for the conference championships.
The bracket slots ASU as a sixth seed heading into the Pac-12 Men’s Tennis Championships as the team will face a familiar opponent in the third seeded USC Trojans (15-7, 6-2 Pac-12). The Sun Devils were handily defeated in their last match against the Trojans back on April 15 at the Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe by a final score of 4-1.
“We feel good,” ASU head coach Matt Hill said. “We just played them recently and it was a really competitive match. It came down to some really small details and things that we had already talked with the guys about after the matches. We’re excited for the challenge. We like the draw that we have and we’re excited to go to war on Thursday.”
ASU has faced one of the toughest schedules in Division I men’s tennis this season in their first year back since being disbanded in 2008 for financial reasons. They started the year with a 0-3 record after taking losses from Top-25 teams in Duke, Texas A&M and TCU. Their schedule eased up as they went on an eight-match winning streak and made two tournament finals appearances; winning the 70th annual Blue Gray Tennis Classic against Alabama 4-3, and placing as the runner-up in the BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge after falling to Cal 4-3.
Conference play has not been any easier for the Sun Devils as the Pac-12 boasts some of the best teams in the country with three teams featured in the top-15: UCLA (2), Stanford (4) and USC (12). However, their 3-4 record may be misleading as the box scores do not show how close the matches were in both singles and doubles play.
“We knew we had very strong players, but we had no idea how quickly they would come together as a group and how quickly they would adjust from individual tournament tennis that they all knew growing up with to a team tennis format,” Hill said. “We knew they were capable, but we didn’t know what to expect. We did set high expectations for the group because we knew their level of tennis.”
Individually, No. 20 Oracle/ITA national singles player and senior captain Michaël Geerts has given this Sun Devil team a necessary spark. He has the team’s best winning percentage with a 25-11 singles record and has defeated the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the country in seniors Martin Redlicki from UCLA and Mikael Torpegaard from Ohio State. He has achieved two Pac-12 Player of the Week honors and has instilled a confidence in his teammates and the coaching staff in his lone season of eligibility.
No. 84 freshman captain Benjamin Hannestad has also made a notable impact this season posting a 19-9 singles record. Hannestad typically plays on court two for the Sun Devils and will likely take over court one duties when Geerts leaves.
“He was part of my decision to come here,” sophomore Makey Rakotomalala said of Geerts. “I’m very sad, but I’m glad he finished strong (against Arizona) and we’re going to miss him a lot next season.”
Doubles play has been a real point of improvement for ASU this season as the team has mixed up the pairings a number of times in hopes of building team chemistry with the ultimate goal of clinching the doubles point in every match played. The pairing of Rakotomalala and freshman Andrea Bolla find themselves at No. 48 in the updated Oracle/ITA national doubles rankings, while the pair of Geerts and freshman Tim Ruehl debuted for the first time at No. 88 as of April 24.
“The main thing is we’ve been playing really strong doubles,” Hill said. “Obviously, Geerts has been playing exceptionally well. Benjamin is getting back to his normal form and that’s been really exciting for us. We’ve had some key performances from Tim and Makey and some of the other guys. We really feel like all nine spots we’re putting out there–the three doubles and the six singles–feel really confident in each position and that they have a great chance to win when we step out against anybody.”
The Pac-12 championships begin on April 25 with a matchup between the eighth seeded Utah Utes and ninth seeded Wildcats. The Sun Devils take on the Trojans the following day on the 26th. That match is set to start at 6:00 p.m. PT at Libbey Park in Ojai, Calif.
