(Photo via Joey Plishka/WCSN)
The ASU Men’s Tennis team (6-2) returned from a two-week hiatus under the lights Friday night at the Kiwanis Tennis Center in Tempe for the Diablos College Tennis Challenge, where they outplayed the Nevada Wolfpack in the singles and doubles matches. The Sun Devils won their opening match with a final score of 4-1.
Earlier in the day, the Sun Devils played a rescheduled match against Grand Canyon University and swept the Lopes 4-0 with dominating performances in their doubles and singles matches.
ASU kicked off the tournament against a Nevada tennis team that has only found the win column once this year. The Wolfpack’s lone win came against UC Irvine the previous week. On Friday, however, the Wolfpack played nothing like a below .500 team and kept the Devils on their feet throughout the evening.
In the doubles matchups, head coach Matt Hill decided to pair sophomore Murphy Cassone and junior Jacob Bullard together on court seven. The two played against the Nevada duo of junior Matheo Coupu and graduate student Delmas N’Tcha. On court eight Hill paired freshman sophomore Constantinos Koshis with Nicola Cigna, and on court one junior Max McKennon played with freshman Roi Ginat.
McKennon and Ginat took a commanding lead at the beginning of their match, as they got on the break early in the game and eventually defeated their Nevada counterparts by a final score of 6-1.
With one match down for the Sun Devils, who needed one more win from the doubles pairings to take an early lead in the team matchup, the pairing of Cassone and Bullard did not disappoint. The duo got an early break point. In the second game, Cassone’s serve game was shaky to start, but he soon recovered and held serve. The Wolfpack mounted several mini comebacks throughout various points of the match, but the Devils were not phased, nod did they feel under siege from the pressure. ASU won the match convincingly with a final score of 6-4.
Cassone continued his hot streak into the night, as he excelled against Nevada sophomore Pedro Liborio in the singles match and defeated the Portuguese player in straight two sets 6-1, 6-0.
Cassone and Hill worked over the summer, improving different aspects of his game, and now, the hard work is finally paying off for Cassone. He is 4-1 in singles matches this season with the Sun Devils.
“My movement is a huge part of my game and my ball quality is very high, so once I establish that, they’re not getting the ball by me, and they’re missing. They start to self-destruct on the court,” Cassone said.
On the other courts, the Sun Devils saw four of their six matches go into a third set. Despite the pressure, ASU, won three of these final sets to pull out the win over Nevada. ASU’s will to fight and claw back showed on the courts and paid dividends in its win over the Wolfpack.
“I’m super proud of the guys, the way we competed, the way we fought, all the way through the end,” McKennon said. “There were times in the match when it was looking like it was going to be a real battle, where things could have gone any other way with the snap of a finger. But I think all the guys played well with each other and helped each other out on every court.”
Junior Spencer Brachman, in particular, motivated the Sun Devils to keep on fighting. He could be heard chanting and yelling words of inspiration throughout the late-night matches on the courts.
“I try to be the emotional leader of the team and try to fire everybody up, especially when I’m playing next to someone,” Brachman said. “The atmosphere was great tonight, especially playing next to Roi and hearing Max down the court. It was great.”
Arizona State will play UNLV in the second round tomorrow and Hill and his team is ready for the fight they have on their hands.
“We’re playing UNLV and they’re a very good team,” Hill said. “We know that they are well coached, and they got depth from one through four, and we got to see them today, and it’s gonna be a tough task tomorrow.”
The semifinal match is at 5:00 PM at the Kiwanis Tennis Center Saturday night in Tempe.
