ASU Men’s Tennis: Sun Devils defeat Cal Poly to improve to sweep ASU Invitational

Photo: (Mason Kern/WCSN)

The Arizona State men’s tennis team defeated Cal Poly 4-1 on Saturday afternoon at the Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe in the team’s final match of the ASU Invitational to move their record to 3-3 on the season.

ASU began the day by clinching the doubles point for the first time this season. The second doubles for ASU, freshman captain Benjamin Hannestad and freshman Tim Ruehl won their set 6-1 before freshman captain Thomas Wright and freshman Andrea Bolla clinched the doubles point with a 6-2 victory.

Junior Makey Rakotomalala said securing the early doubles point was “crucial” ahead of singles.

A factor that certainly helped ASU gain the first point of the match was Hannestad. He was blistering his serve his match, with over five aces in his set alongside Ruehl.

“We were just told to play aggressive, so I went after my serves to try to get some free points,” Hannestad said following ASU’s win.

In singles, the Sun Devils cruised to wins in three of their six matches to clinch the match. Bolla defeated Axel Damiens 6-3, 6-3, Pierre Louis-Dodens handily defeated Karl Edner 6-0, 6-2 and Makey Rakotomalala won his match on court one 6-3, 6-3. The last two matches were suspended due to the match already being clinched.

Rakotomalala, the spirited Frenchman said once again playing “in front of the big crowd” at the Whiteman Tennis Center helped him a lot in the match today as it has each match so far this season.

The win improves the Sun Devils’ record to .500 for the first time this season. The win also means a sweep for ASU in the Invitational as the team defeated Loyola Marymount Friday afternoon and Fresno State earlier on Saturday morning.

However, ASU head coach Matt Hill said that he is not paying attention to the record of his team at this point, just that they are getting better.

“Our goal is just getting better match-to-match,” Hill said. “I think we knew coming into this weekend that these were some good teams. We felt really confident about the training that we put in the last couple weeks, but we’re not necessarily looking at the record as much as how the guys are progressing.”

The Sun Devils next matchup is their first road match of the season as they travel to Southern California to face University of San Diego next Saturday.

Singles Results:

1. Makey Rakotomalala (ASU) def. Josh Ortlip (Cal Poly) – 6-3 6-3
2. Benjamin Hannestad (ASU) vs. Dominick Bechard  (Cal Poly) – 6-3, 6-5 (susp.)
3. Andrea Bolla (ASU) def. Axel Damiens (Cal Poly) – 6-2, 6-3
4. Antoine Noel (Cal Poly) def. Thomas Wright  (ASU) – 6-2, 6-3
5. Will Kirkman (ASU) vs. Alexander Stater (Cal Poly) – 7-5, 4-1  (susp.)
6. Pierre Louis-Dodens (ASU) vs. Karl Enander (Cal Poly) – 6-0, 6-2

Doubles Results:

1. Tim Ruehl and Benjamin Hannestad (ASU) def. Andrew Whitehouse and Roman Shenkiryk (Cal Poly) – 6-1
2. Thomas Wright and Andrea Bolla (ASU) def. Josh Ortlip and Axel Damiens (Cal Poly) – 6-2^
3. Karl Enander and Dominick Bechard (Cal Poly) vs. Makey Rakotomalala and Pierre Louis-Dodens (ASU)- 5-3 (susp.)

^clinched doubles point

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