March 17, 2009
The 68th-ranked Purdue women's tennis team was defeated 7-0 by No. 22 Arizona State Tuesday at the Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe, Ariz.
Purdue (5-7) lost the doubles point as the No. 2 and No. 3 duos played together for the first time this season. The 58th-ranked doubles team of Nadia Abdala and Laila Abdala defeated junior Michelle Sammons and senior co-captain Stephanie Wooten 8-2 at No. 1. Arizona State (9-4) clinched the doubles point at No. 2 when Kelcy McKenna and Michelle Brycki beat freshman Remi Martin and junior co-captain Tatiana Ganzha 8-6. The sweep was completed when Ashlee Brown and Sianna Simmons earned an 8-6 win over freshmen Jennifer Rabot and Anna Dushkina at No. 3.
The Sun Devils continued to win as the hard-fought match moved to singles. Laila Abdala defeated Ganzha 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3. Nadia Abdala, the 48th-ranked singles player in the NCAA, ended Wooten's four-match winning streak with a 6-2, 6-0 victory at No. 2. The match was clinched when Ali Van Horne defeated Dushkina 6-0, 6-1.
Simmons put together a 6-1, 6-3 win over Martin at No. 5, and Brown stopped Rabot's winning streak, which had reached four matches, with a 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 4. The final match to conclude was the most exciting of the day, as McKenna, ranked third in the NCAA in singles, dropped the first set to Sammons before coming back to claim a 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (3) victory.
Arizona State leads the all-time series 2-0. The only other meeting between the two teams took place in 2002 and also was held in Tempe. The Boilermakers return to action Thursday by taking on No. 25 San Diego State at the Aztec Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif.