(Photo Courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics)
It’s all about how you bounce back in sports. Taking a tough loss is never easy and when you take your first loss at home, it can be challenging.
After a 4-0 loss to No. 1 Oklahoma State yesterday. Bouncing back is exactly what the No. 25 Arizona State Women’s tennis team (6-3) did Sunday afternoon against the Cal Poly Mustangs (4-3), taking a 4-0 win of its own.
The Sun Devils came out with authority taking the doubles point against the Mustangs. Courts 2 and 3 for ASU were able to win their matches with a score of 6-2. However on court 1, sophomore Chelsea Fontenel and junior Patricija Spaka lost their match 2-6. The duo got behind early and could not recover from their early mistakes.
“I feel like we weren’t in the right headspace,” Spaka said. “I feel like we took the emotions from doubles and got into singles and we did our jobs in the singles which helped.”
Doing their jobs in singles is an understatement. The Sun Devils had a dominant showing in the singles matches. They won the first three matches, winning on courts one, four and six.
On court 1, it was just pure domination from senior Giulia Morlet. She won her match with ease against Mustang Delanie Dunkle with a sweep of two 6-0 scores.
“Today we came out and played well in doubles,” Morlet said. “I was just excited and wanted to get the job done.”
Spaka clinched the 4-0 victory for the Sun Devils in her singles match with scores of 6-1, 6-0. She faced Mustang Romane Mosse. After a disappointing loss in doubles, she picked herself right back up for a dominating singles win.
“Losing the doubles match was painful,” Spaka said. “I just moved on and we went to singles and did whatever I had to do to win a match.”
After a tough, but close loss to OSU yesterday, head coach Sheila McInerney wasn’t fazed by the dominant victory, Sunday afternoon.
“Obviously Oklahoma State is a lot tougher than you know nothing against Cal Poly,” McInerney said. “We should come out pretty confidently against Cal Poly no matter what happened yesterday.”
The loss against the Cowboys has done nothing but boost the confidence of the Sun Devils. Knowing they can go toe-to-toe against the nation’s best.
“Anytime you have a competitive match like we had yesterday. That should help you build on the next day to be honest with you,” McInerney said. “You got a good match under your belt against a really good team, and you competed well.”
The Sun Devils record improves to 6-3 (5-1 at home). Now they need to put this weekend behind them and look forward to their next matchup against the No. 9 Ohio State Buckeyes next Sunday. McInerney says the Buckeyes seem to be there “bugaboo”. The Sun Devils haven’t beaten the Buckeyes since 1990.
“They’re a team that competes extremely well and probably even competes better than their talent level,” McInerney said. “You’re always going to get into a dogfight with them and looking forward to it. Should be a really good match.”
