ASU Women’s Tennis: No. 18 Sun Devils escape against Wichita State

(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)

Before the Sun Devils were able to retake the lead and claim the win 5-2, Wichita State sent a shockwave through No. 18 Arizona State.

ASU took the doubles point, winning on courts two and three, while they found their remaining points from singles one, two, five and six.

 “I thought we had to battle really hard and I thought we did, to come up with a win is always a good thing, particularly after losing three in a row,” ASU head coach Sheila McInerney said. “Sometimes you lose a bit of confidence.”

Senior Sammi Hampton pulled off an emphatic come from behind win in singles, snapping back from a four-love deficit in the first set to win the match 7-5, 6-2.

“I don’t think I played badly but she was taking it to me a little bit and it gets to me mentally,” Hampton said. “Once I started getting my rhythm it was fine from then on.”

Hampton swept the fifth game to trail 4-1 in the first set, marking the first of nine games out of the next 10 she took.

“She’s a senior so we expect her to be tough and she is,” McInerney said.

Hampton’s singles match was not her first big momentum swing of the day – the other came in her doubles match with Lauryn John-Baptiste.

The Sun Devils pairing was up 5-0 and a couple of match points before losing the next three games to Ting-ya Hsu and Natsumi Kurahashi.

“It was more us not closing out rather than the other team playing well,” McInerney said. “I don’t know if they got nervous, but they didn’t gel as well as they could have.”

“We kind of cruised a long there and then we took a step back,” Hampton said. “We need to focus next time and learn from this so it doesn’t happen again because against a good team, they can roll and come back and win.”

The pair bounced back to take the set 6-3, securing ASU’s second doubles match and ultimately the doubles point after Cali Jankowski and Savannah Slaysman comfortably won their match, 6-1.

The new pairing marked John-Baptiste’s first doubles match since returning from a wrist injury and Hamptons third pairing of the season.

“Each person plays a little bit differently, I was used to playing with Sam [Alicea] for the whole year last year and then I go to Sasa [Klanecek] who just smacks the crap out of it and then I have Lauryn who’s really handsy and athletic,” Hampton said. “I’m looking forward to doing more with her.”

Slaysman’s singles match replicated her double’s efforts, storming to a 6-2, 6-0 win, edging ASU closer to an overall victory.

“It really helps if we get a win early because it helps the momentum of the rest of the matches because they know there’s a win there and they feel more confident,” Slaysman said.

The singles win marked Slaysman’s eighth from 10 matches and put her in the lead of matches won this season by Sun Devils.

Ilze Hattingh secured Arizona State’s fourth singles point and claimed the win for the Sun Devils after taking her match 6-3, 6-3.

Hattingh was down 40-15 in her opening service game before holding and going down 0-40 in the second. She turned things around off the back of a double-fault from Sarvinoz Saidhujaeva to break with a crosscourt forehand winner and go up two games to love.

While it was not the only break of serve Hattingh and Saidhujaeva endured, Hattingh’s effort to come from behind and play aggressive tennis set the tone for the remainder of the match. 

“I think she was a little bit down,” McInerney said. “So, for her to get off in straight sets today was another good job.”

Despite the result being finalized, Jankowski and Marta Bellucco continued their match. Jankowski dropped the first set 5-7 before forcing a tiebreak in the second to go up 7-6, much to the pleasure of the remainder of the ASU women’s tennis team who watched on courtside.  

“When you’re the last match on and you’re kind of tired and in a third set it’s really important to feel the support from teammates,” Slaysman said. “We just tried to lift her up as much as we could.”

The third-set tiebreak saw Jankowski trailing 6-1 before marching home to win 12-10.

“Cali was injured all last year, she had surgery, so she was literally off of tennis for 16 months,” McInerney said. “This was a good match for her to keep looking to improve.”

The win saw ASU stay undefeated at home and pulled them out of their three-game losing streak to hold a 7-3 record for the season.

“A definite goal for us is to try and host the top 16 teams so we’re just going to try and keep our high ranking,” Slaysman said.

The Sun Devils will be back at Whiteman Tennis Center on Sunday when they take on the Rice Owls at midday.

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