University of Washington
Arizona State
UW Unable To Comeback Against ASU
April 09, 2017 | Women's Tennis
SEATTLE – In a close battle with Arizona State, the Washington women's tennis team was unable to grab the win, falling 3-4 at Bill Quillian Tennis Stadium today in their final home match of the season.
"Today was another close battle and we are disappointed that it didn't go our way," said head coach Robin Stephenson. "Credit to ASU, they're really well coached and disciplined and I thought they played a good match."
Before the match began, the team honored Nour Abbes for senior day. The Tunis, Tunisia native joined the program last season as a transfer, and has picked up key wins for the team in both singles and doubles throughout her career. Paired with Miki Kobayashi in doubles, the duo has defeated four ITA top-10 ranked pairs in their time at UW, and for her success last season, Abbes was named All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention.
The Huskies trailed early in doubles to start the match and had a hard time recovering, surrendering the point to ASU. Arizona State was able to take wins on courts two and three, with the match on court one going unfinished.
In singles, Abbes was unable to defeat 88th ranked Kelley Anderson on court three, with Alexis Prokopuik falling on court five as well. On court one, Stacey Fung faced No. 61 Kassidy Jump, and was able to come out on top of a competitive 6-4, 6-4 match. The sophomore, who sits at 50th in the latest ITA Singles Rankings, has defeated three consecutive ranked opponents in singles, two of which were in the top-30.
Trailing 1-3, Miki Kobayashi kept the Huskies alive with a win on court two. Winning her first set over No. 80 Sammi Hampton 6-3, the junior from Nagano, Japan battled through a tough second set, winning a tie-break 8-6.
"I'm happy about the way I responded in singles," said Kobayashi. "But we learned that the doubles point is going to be very important, so we will work on that."
However, Washington was unable to keep the Sun Devils from clinching, dropping their match on court four to give ASU their fourth point.
"I didn't think we started the match the right way in doubles and that cost us early in the match," said Stephenson. "We had our chances in singles and the girls did a great job battling back and giving us a chance."
On court six, Katarina Kopcalic dropped her first set 4-6, but battled back to force a third set tie-break with a 6-2 win in the second. Squaring off with Gussie O'Sullivan, the freshman came out on top of a back-and-forth rally, winning her tie-break 13-11 for her 20th singles win on the season.
"It was a tough loss but we have a lot of positives to take from it," said Abbes. "We are just going to move forward and get ready for our next matches."
The Huskies will finish out their season on the road, continuing their Pac-12 schedule next weekend when they travel to California to face Cal in Berkeley on Friday, and Stanford on Saturday.
RESULTS
No. 31 Washington – 3
No. 36 Arizona State – 4
Doubles
1 – No. 44 Abbes/Kobayashi (UW) vs. No. 82 Fossa-Huergo/Osborne (ASU) 4-4 (DNF)
2 – No. 71 Anderson/Slaysman (ASU) def. Fung/Hance (UW) 6-2
3 – Hampton/Jump (ASU) def. Kopcalic/Slavica (UW) 6-1
Order of finish: 3, 2
Singles
1 – No. 50 Stacey Fung (UW) def. No. 61 Kassidy Jump (ASU) 6-4, 6-4
2 – No. 123 Miki Kobayashi (UW) def. No. 80 Sammi Hapton (ASU) 6-3, 7-6 (8-6)
3 – No. 88 Kelley Anderson (ASU) def. Nour Abbes (UW) 6-3, 6-3
4 – Nicole Fossa-Huergo (ASU) def. Kenadi Hance (UW) 7-5, 6-3
5 – Savannah Slaysman (ASU) def. Alexis Prokopuik (UW) 6-4, 6-2
6 – Katarina Kopcalic (UW) def. Gussie O'Sullivan (ASU) 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (13-11)
Order of finish: 3, 5, 1, 2, 4, 6
Players Mentioned
