April 20, 2004
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ON TAP: The Arizona State women's tennis team (6-14; 1-7 Pac-10) will travel to Ojai, California to compete in the Pacific-10 Individual Championships, Thursday, April 22 through Sunday, April 25. The championship will decided the league's singles and doubles champions.
PAC-10/ASU NOTES: The Pac-10 Championship field will comprise all nine teams from the conference ... a 32-player singles draw shall consist of three players from each school with five additional competitors selected by a committee of coaches, based upon the participants record ASU's Joslynn Burkett, Wendy Pilecka and Cindy Sureephong will compete in the main draw ... the Pac-10's will also have a 16-team doubles draw that will include one team from each school and seven additional teams chosen the same way as singles ... the duo's of Kady Pooler/Lauren Colalillo and Pilecka/Sureephong will play in the doubles main draw ... ASU's Adria Engel won the singles title in 2001 ... freshman Sabrina Capannolo leads the team with 23 overall wins ... Colalillo led the team in dual wins with a 11-3 record, 4-1 in the Pac-10 ... she has also won 11 of her last 14 matches ... six of ASU's last 10 losses have been by just one point, all to highly-ranked teams ... to view the draws and follow the tournament's progress, log onto www.ojaitourney.org.
HEAD COACH Sheila McInerney: Sheila McInerney enters her 20th season after leading last year's team to its seventh consecutive (15 of the past 16 seasons) NCAA Round of 16 appearance and a No. 17 national ranking. McInerney also guided Arizona State to eight quarterfinal appearances in her tenure, and has made the NCAA tournament in 18 of her 19 seasons. The 2003 season saw McInerney accomplish another milestone in her illustrious career, earning her 300th career win. She also coached another player to All-American acclaim and helped place four players on the Pac-10 All-Academic teams, tying a school record for most student-athletes selected. McInerney, who owns a career record of 307-193, posted three 20-win seasons (1986, '90, '01) to her credit and guided the Sun Devils to 16 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. The Sun Devils have reached the NCAA quarterfinals eight times under McInerney and have finished in the top-10 five of the past seven seasons and an astounding 13 times in her 19 seasons.
YOUNG/NEW FACES: McInerney welcomed six freshmen players to this year's team with many of them having contributed in both the singles and doubles lineups: Ebru Burduroglu (Istanbul, Turkey), Sabrina Capannolo (Las Vegas, Nev.), Wendy Pilecka (Pribram Czech Rep.), Kady Pooler (Laguna Niguel, Calif.), Rebecca Rankin (Purley, England), Vana Tomas (Split Croatia).
SCHEDULE STRENGTH: Once again, ASU faced a strong non-conference slate (maybe the strongest ever) along with the always powerful Pac-10 Conference. Fifteen of ASU's 21 opponents earned NCAA bids last year, while 12 of ASU's opponents this year are in the top-25. Additionally, the Pac-10 comprises four of the nation's top-9 teams.
DEVILS IN THE RANKINGS: For the first time since the 1996 season, the Sun Devils are not ranked in the top-25 as they come in at No. 41 in the April 20th Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings, administered by the ITA. Junior Joslynn Burkett continues in the singles rankings at No. 99.
NCAA REGIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The NCAA will announce the 64-team postseason field along with host sites on Wednesday, May 5 between 1:00-2:00 p.m. The show will be broadcast live on ESPNEWS. The Sun Devils will be seeking their 17th consecutive bid into the postseason field.