Men’s Tennis wins season opener, Volleyball falls to Washington State

Arizona State men’s tennis started its season on Thursday against Florida Atlantic, while Volleyball hosted Washington State in its home opener.

Men’s Tennis

It came down to the final match, but Arizona State (1-0) beat Florida Atlantic (1-2) 4-3 on Thursday.

The Sun Devils took the doubles point against FAU. The pairings of George Stoupe/Moritz Hoffmann and Andrea Bolla/Makey Rakotomalala earned wins to secure the point.

Stoupe’s singles contest against FAU’s Finn Stodder was the lone match to reach three sets, and it decided the result between the two schools.

Stoupe was able to best Stodder (6-2, 6-7, 6-2) to secure the season-opening win for the Sun Devils. Bolla and Nathan Ponwith were able to sweep their matches to earn the Sun Devils another two points.

Arizona State will travel to Austin, Texas to face the fourth-ranked Longhorns on Sunday.

Volleyball

It came down to a replay and a game of inches for the Sun Devils on Thursday. After a challenge from Arizona State coach Sanja Tomasevic, the officials ruled in favor of Washington State (2-1) to give the Cougars the match point in their 3-2 win over ASU (1-2).

Three sets on Thursday were decided by two points. The Sun Devils took the first game handily 25-17. Washington State came back in game two to help swing the momentum.

In that second game, the largest lead by either side was four when the Sun Devils went up 21-17. However, the Cougars answered back with a 6-0 run that created a pathway to a 26-24 game two win.

Washington State won the third game by 15 points as Arizona State struggled to find success. The Sun Devils responded well in game four, though. Despite being down 23-21, Arizona State finished on a 4-0 scoring run to force a fifth game.

That’s where the ball rolled the Cougars way. A block attempt on Washington State’s Kalyah Williams’ kill barely missed the inbounds line and ended the game at 16-14 for the Cougars.

Once again, sophomore Iman Isanovic led the Sun Devils with 22 kills. Freshman Marta Levinska had nine, but also saw her first real freshman stuggles. She also had eight errors, leading to a 0.029 hit percentage.

Freshman Ella Snyder had a double-double performance with a team-high 38 assists along with 12 digs. Georgia transfer Regan Tinkle also saw her first Sun Devil action as she added four kills and two digs.

The two teams meet again on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. M.T. at Desert Financial Arena.