(Photo: Marie Obsuna/Sun Devil Athletics)
Arizona State kicks off its 2019 season – the second since being reinstated as a program after getting disbanded in 2008 for financial reasons – on the road in North Carolina this weekend against Duke and No. 1 Wake Forest. The squad will look to continue its success from last weekend when it hosted the inaugural Tempe Collegiate Classic for three friendly matches that only affected players individual Oracle/ITA. rankings.
“They are super excited,” ASU coach Matt Hill said regarding the players’ readiness for the upcoming road trip. “They are ready to get out there, get tested and see where we’re at. I thought last weekend was a good lead up into it. I think they are even more excited now.”
The No. 24 Sun Devils will take on a familiar opponent in their first match on Friday as they take on Duke, who beat ASU 5-2 at the Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe last season when the Blue Devils were ranked No. 25. This time around, ASU jumped into the top-25 after ending last season No. 38, whereas Duke is unranked.
ASU will then head to Wake Forest to face the reigning National Champion Demon Deacons, who start the season ranked No. 1 for the second consecutive year.
“Obviously Wake (Forest) is the toughest team in the country and they are the defending champions,” junior Nathan Ponwith said. “Duke is a really good team as well, so it will also be an interesting test. Wake is our first dual match of the year and they are a tough team, so it’s going to be eye opening to see where we are. We are improving every day in practice and we are going to give it our best shot.”
ASU enters the season without last year’s presumed court one Michaël Geerts, who exhausted his lone season of eligibility, and Pierre-Louis Dodens, who transferred to Clemson. However, the team recouped with three new players via transfer: Justin Roberts, a graduate transfer from South Florida, Ponwith, a junior from Georgia and Dominik Kellovsky, a junior from the Czech Republic.
For the three newcomers, starting off the year on a new team taking on some of the top talent in the country is beneficial to the bonding process, and it’s a gauge to see how the Sun Devils stack up.
“It’s a good measuring stick to see where we are,” Roberts said. “I don’t think anyone here is playing their best tennis yet. It’s still early in the year. We matched up well with the top teams in the country like Mississippi State, a top-5 kind of team. That’s a good way to see where we are. We have another week under our belts, working hard together and trying to shore up some things before we go out there. I think we actually have a good chance to surprise them out there.”
With the influx of new talent, Hill said it will take “a couple of months” to decide which lineups will allow for the best outcome in specific matches. A lot of strategy is involved in the process, as team’s don’t just rank their singles players and send them down the peking order of courts one through six.
“We have so many good players,” Hill said. “It is very difficult to set a lineup in singles right now when you have players of this caliber consistent through the line. You have got to be strategic about it, who they are, how they operate, what we’re looking from them, what we’re seeing from them. It’s not easy.”
Although ASU has no singles players ranked by the Oracle/ITA currently, it will send out one ranked doubles pair in the sophomore tandem of No. 22 Tim Ruehl and Andrea Bolla. The Sun Devils performed well in doubles play in last weekend’s tournament going 2-1, but there is still a lot of relationship building involved with the new players, and cleaning up mistakes prior to the road trip.
Wake Forest has four singles players ranked in the top-125, which includes No. 1 Petros Chrysochos.
“It’s a style thing,” Hill said of the approach for taking on Chrysochos. “He is very good at what he does and is great at his fundamentals. He is a great competitor point-to-point and he is a great guy. He’s an amazing kid and we have a ton of respect for him. We have players that we believe can definitely compete with him, and while he’s always a very difficult out, we have guys that have the ability to beat players of that caliber.”
Despite it all, ASU is focused on one match at a time. Revenge against Duke, and upsetting the nation’s No. 1 are the primary focus of a team that is seeking to prove its national relevance.
“Coach has definitely been talking about preparation and just focus and making sure we are treating practice like a match,” Ponwith said. “Bringing intensity, energy and primarily focus, and working together as a team.”
