ASU tops UA women

Ian Meyer Arizona Daily Wildcat UA sophomore Monique Allegre returns a shot against ASU's Torey Pratt yesterday at Robson Tennis Center. Allegre won 6-3, 6-4 in her singles match. However, ASU defeated Arizona, 6-3.

The Wildcats, in particular junior Vicky Maes, got hit a few times by Arizona State's returns yesterday afternoon as they lost to the Sun Devils, 6-3 at Robson Tennis Center.

"You never know what to expect," UA senior Khristen Pietrucha said. "You're at the net and they just go for your head."

Maes went down twice from missile shots to her body in doubles and Stephanie Sammaritano had to take a breather after being tagged in her singles match.

"They are just big, big hitters and we were just trying to get used to the pace," Pietrucha said.

Arizona led 3-1 at one point and it looked as though they could win outright in singles without having to play doubles, but Arizona State won the remaining two matches.

Pietrucha was leading 5-2 in the final set over Alison Nash before losing, 7-5.

Arizona was stretched to several three-set matches after only having four in its last three competitions.

Goldstein narrowly defeated Stephanie Lansdorp, 7-6, 7-6 earning her sixth-straight singles victory.

Maes lost the first, 6-2 to No. 18 Reka Cseresnyes, but won the second and third, 6-2, 7-5.

Sophomores Monique Allegre and Karen Goldstein were the other winners for the Wildcats, who are13-6 overall, 2-5 in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division.

Tied at three after singles play, whichever team would take two of the three doubles matches would earn the Pac-10 victory.

ASU (14-3, 5-2) won all three.

"This is probably the most draining (loss) I've experienced," Pietrucha said. "All the matches were so close, it could have gone either way. I think people had opportunities and didn't take them."

The Wildcats had won six-straight matches before yesterday.

"I wouldn't necessarily say that they're better than we are. We just didn't play well. We had a lot of chances and a lot of missed opportunities," UA head coach Becky Bell said.

ASU's Lansdorp and Katy Propstra beat UA's sixth-ranked tandem of Maes and Pietrucha, 8-4. It was their second-straight doubles loss.

"When you play No. 1 doubles in the Pac-10 you need to play well and convert and take advantage of the opportunities that you're given," Bell said.

Goldstein and Sammaritano lost, 8-4 and the Sun Devils' Torey Pratt and Cseresnyes completed the ASU doubles sweep with an 8-3 victory over Allegre and Miringoff.