No. 16 ASU Women’s Tennis Move To 6-2 in Big 12 Play with Win Over Kansas

(Photo: Jack Simon/WCSN)

TEMPE – Look into the stands on Friday night at Whiteman Tennis Center and one would see ASU volleyball players and head coach JJ Van Niel in attendance. Earlier this season, volleyball topped the Big 12 standings en route to the NCAA Tournament, a feat ASU women’s tennis looks to replicate.

With Van Niel peering on, ASU (14-4, 6-2 Big 12) knew the challenge Kansas (9-8, 5-3 Big 12) would pose despite riding a three-game streak coming in.

Before ever stepping onto the court, ASU reshuffled its singles plans because of an injury to its typical No. 2 Sara Svetac, sidelined with a boot around her lower right leg. Devoid of her services, the Sun Devils were forced to push their singles players up a position.

ASU didn’t help matters with the doubles point, losing 6-4, 6-3 on courts one and two. Early breaks were difficult to get out of and a volley from sophomore Lily Taylor that bounced off the net tape allowed Kansas to rush ahead.

The one person unaffected by that change, junior Emilija Tverijonaite on court one, made quick work of her opponent, No. 53 Kyoka Kubo, 6-0, 6-2. After a two-match losing streak in the midst of Big 12 play, Tverijonaite has rebounded with five consecutive straight-set victories.

The No. 22 player in the country was assertive from the start, controlling the baseline rallies and feasting off Kubo’s slice. A pair of early breaks saw Tverijonaite race out to a 4-0 start, and her foot stayed on the gas pedal, hammering a backhand winner down the line to break for a third time in the first.

On serve, the Lithuanian native simply overpowered her opponent with flat strokes out wide that constantly had Kubo on the run. A series of forehands and a return error from Kubo sealed the first set for Tverijonaite, her fourth set to love in the last five matches.

ASU’s singles No. 1 picked up where she left off in the first, breaking to begin the second. In a show of mortality, Tverijonaite got broken to love immediately; her only service game that didn’t result in a hold.

The minor setback didn’t perturb her, however, ripping off four straight games to move to 5-1, and closing out the match to produce ASU’s first point with a backhand that went long from Kubo.

“She’s so steady, she anticipates so well, and she just holds herself to such an incredible standard,” head coach Jamea Jackson said. “She expects a lot out of herself, and she doesn’t let herself fall below that.”

On court five, freshman Zlata Bartanusz followed suit in an even more dominant 6-0, 6-1 display. The lefty frustrated the opposition throughout the match, employing a heavy forehand that tailed out of her opponent’s backhand strike zone and helped construct points that almost entirely went ASU’s way.

Yet it was the tight battles on courts two and three that decided the Sun Devils fate on Friday night. Graduate Vivian Ovrootsky, the team’s veteran presence and leader, not only hasn’t dropped a singles match this season but has been on the wrong side of a set just once.

Harboring a 23-set win streak, Ovrootsky punched first in a tight first set. A break in the fifth game gave the graduate a 3-2 lead that she never relinquished, finishing points with a variety of overheads and drop volleys that her opponent, He Janse van Vuuren, was unable to reach.

The grueling rallies appeared to take a toll on Ovrootsky, however, who dropped the second set 6-1. Janse van Vuuren was content to slice for days until an error was induced and Ovroostky erred on numerous occasions attempting to end the point.

But the third set saw a different level of mental strength from Ovrootsky, who dug deep and broke to start. Despite constant pressure from van Vuuren, Ovrootsky never folded, saving two break points at 1-0 with consecutive forehand winners and hitting a crosscourt running backhand on deuce point to move to 4-2.

After slowing down in the second set, Ovrootsky paid no regard to the physicality of the final set and earned ASU’s third point of the night 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, when van Vuuren left a slice short into the net.

“Heavy lies the head that wears the crown,” Jackson said. “She has to be the one that gives everyone else that confidence that she’s gonna put a point on the board and that could be a cross to bear, so she’s showing a lot of mental toughness and mental fortitude.”

With the Sun Devils requiring just one win from the final three singles matches, it was Taylor at singles No. 3 who took full advantage of her opportunity up a spot.

A break-heavy first set full of battering groundstrokes went Taylor’s way 6-3 but Kansas opened the second with a furious four-game tear. Taylor clawed back within a game but was unable to dig out the deficit, falling 6-4 in the second.

That run of momentum, however, gave her a blueprint of what to do in the ultimate set.

“I had to just weather the storm because she’s a player that (will) fire amazing shots in a row, and then give you free errors,” Taylor said. “So I had to really knuckle down when she was firing those shots, and then wait for the errors to come, and then take advantage of those.”

Instead of waiting for those errors to come, Taylor forced the issue by rushing the net and taking time away. An early break saw Taylor fall behind but a deep crosscourt forehand led to a break back that knotted the set at four apiece.

Down 15-30 on serve, Taylor ripped two forehands that caused errors and held with another forehand behind her opponent. The momentum squarely on her side, Taylor burst out to a 15-40 lead that created three match point opportunities and clinched the 4-1 win on another forehand long from Kansas.

“There were moments where I just was like ‘I need to win for the team, or I haven’t won in a while, I need to get this win,’” Taylor said. “Those thoughts did come, but I told myself to be in the moment, to focus on this shot, rather than all these outside things that don’t help.”

ASU has now won six of its last seven matches, three of them over top-35 teams in the country. Its 6-2 record in Big 12 play has it tied for second in the conference ahead of its final five matches and a real shot to rise into the top-15 nationally.

The win was crucial but the opponent and the moment were just as vital.

“It was important for us to win this one, and we also lost to (Kansas) last season,” Taylor said. “So to get some revenge, put a lot more on this match than a regular match.”

With just three games left in ASU’s homestand, the Sun Devils are taking advantage of each opportunity to play in Tempe, and as the Big 12 Tournament approaches, ASU will hope that it continues to peak.