(Photo: Ayden Vasquez/WCSN)
TEMPE – Getting swept by No. 2 Texas A&M was a step back for Arizona State’s women’s tennis, but in Saturday’s outing against San Diego, resilience was the name of the game.
ASU (4-2) took the doubles point early and coasted through the singles matchups to down USD (3-3) 6-1.
Doubles
ASU won 6-2 (1), 6-6 unfinished (2), 7-5 (3)
At 2-5 30-40, the doubles No. 3 duo of sophomore Lily Taylor and junior Karsyn Evans had no margin for error. Five games later, the pair completed the improbable comeback to secure the doubles point in the Sun Devils’ favor.
With their backs against the wall, Taylor and Evans launched a barrage of offensive strokes, ultimately overwhelming their USD counterparts in critical situations. On deuce point at 4-5 with USD serving for the set, Taylor poached a putaway volley to knot ASU up at five apiece.
As the momentum shifted, so did the pressure and Taylor and Evans played with a sense of freedom that their opponents lacked. Up 6-5, Taylor took it upon herself to finish the match for the Sun Devils, executing a short approach volley to perfection and forcing numerous errors off of deep forehand returns to pull through 7-5.
“One of our team’s core values is to be resilient and to always fight back,” Taylor said. “You want the person on the other side of the net to always be thinking that the job’s not done, even when they’re ahead, and by having that in their head like it can help even more than just playing the tennis itself.”
Earlier, the doubles No. 1 combo of junior Emilija Tverijonaite and graduate student Vivian Ovrootsky took care of business to give ASU an early cushion. After a shaky start filled with service breaks, Tverijonaite and Ovrootsky settled down, taking four straight games in commanding fashion.
USD had no answer for Tverijonaite’s serve and Ovrootsky’s moxy at the net tempted USD to hit bigger, inducing a boatload of errors, and the pair clinched the match on a backhand error.
The doubles No. 2 match featuring junior Sara Svetac and freshman Zlata Bartanusz headed to a tiebreak before going unfinished.
Singles
Despite a rough start, Tverijonaite on court one was the first singles match to finish. The Sun Devils’ best player had an uncharacteristically inconsistent first set, getting broken three times, including once when serving for the first set at 5-3.
In true Tverijonaite fashion, she responded by winning seven straight games from that point to take the match 6-4, 6-0. The Lithuanian native restricted herself to a power-baseline style in the first set, content to rally for days with No. 94 Hannah Read and coax errors from the back.
But the junior demonstrated why she’s shot up to No. 16 player in the ITA rankings early this season with an exhibition of tactical dominance in the second. Instead of waiting for Read to return fire from deep in the corners, Tverijonaite adapted by following her groundstrokes to the net, finishing with swinging volleys and timely overheads.
“Emilija is just that player that’s willing to add to her game,” head coach Jamea Jackson said. “It makes her more dynamic (when) she’s transferring her weight through the shots … so to see someone want to become an all-court player and want to master all facets of the game at such a young age, it’s rare and it’s a joy.”
The match started to snowball away from Read once Tverijonaite began to take control, and the junior’s final game to clinch ASU’s first singles point was a masterclass. Tverijonaite opened with a beautiful drop volley, hammered a forehand winner behind Read to create three match point opportunities at 15-40 and pummeled a backhand down the line to complete the bagel.
Svetac wasn’t far behind on court 3. The Sun Devils’ number one singles player for much of 2025, Svetac has dealt with injuries that led to Jackson wanting to ease her back into the starting lineup.
Even with the setbacks and lack of playing time this season, the junior’s presence at singles No. 3 is a luxury for ASU. Svetac reached a career-high of No. 40 in the ITA rankings a little less than a year ago and her power off the ground and with her serve was on full display.
“She was a difference maker for our team last year, bringing things home at the number one spot for the majority of the year, and now, she’s had some injuries but to have her just slot back in and get a couple of wins, I think her resurgence has been extremely important for the team,” Jackson said.
The Croatian local started both sets up 5-0, physically dominating her opponent from the start but Svetac’s lack of game time began to show, especially in the second set.
Serving for the match at 5-1 in the second, Svetac generated three match point chances with a huge backhand down the line to go up 40-15 but lost three straight points and got broken. Two games later at 5-3, Svetac had another golden opportunity to close it out on her serve.
Svetac’s backhands paid dividends in this final game, creating angles that pulled her opponent off the court and allowed the junior to produce two more match points with an open-court smash. This time, Svetac didn’t squander the moment and clinched ASU’s second singles point 6-2, 6-3 with a USD forehand into the net.
Courts two and four followed a similar pattern, with the Sun Devils controlling the majority of the match but faltering in certain moments.
At singles No. 2, Ovrootsky grinded her way to a gritty first set win at 6-3, sealed by a terrific forehand lob for her second break of the match. In the second, the Texas transfer fell behind 0-3 before rallying and taking six straight.
Up 4-3, Ovrootsky broke for the third consecutive time with a forehand winner and rode the momentum through her service game. A tremendous backhand winner got her to 30-0 in the ninth game of the set and she clinched the match for ASU 6-3 6-3 with a fantastic defensive effort, retrieving a swinging volley to force a volley into the net.
Upcoming
An away encounter with No. 19 Pepperdine on Feb. 15th awaits before conference play begins on Feb. 27 at TCU, who ASU overcame 4-2 in late January. Facing two ranked opponents in No. 19 USC and Texas A&M didn’t increase the number in the wins column for the Sun Devils but they did provide valuable experience for a team that has top-25 aspirations this season.
“We have a lot of the pieces, and we continue to need tough matches,” Jackson said. “That’s where playing TCU and playing Texas A&M, regardless of the results of those matches, was so important … So for these next few weeks, we look to do the same and to enter the Big 12 ready and confident.”
