Women's tennis falls to Georgia Tech in NCAA second round

The No. 17 Arizona State women’s tennis (15-7) team fell to the 16th-ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (15-10), 4-1, in Atlanta, Georgia to close out the 2010-11 season of competition.

The Sun Devils, who had played what head coach Sheila McInerney described as, “a knock-down, drag-out” match the day before, started out the competition battling for the double point. Georgia Tech’s 18th-ranked doubles pair of Lilley/O’Neill defeated ASU’s No. 25 Hein/McKenna 8-4, while Blau/Kilborn of GT also dropped ASU’s No. 67 Brown/Simmons, 8-6.

In singles competition, Sun Devil Hannah James grabbed the first point for Arizona State defeating Lynn Blau, 6-2, 6-3 to even up the match at 1-1. But Georgia Tech continued to come out firing, as the Yellow Jackets took the subsequent singles matches in the No. 1, No. 5, and No. 6 spots. The matches played between All-American Jacqueline Cako and Micaela Hein were left unfinished once Georgia Tech reached four points to win the match.

The Sun Devils finish the 2010-11 season with 15-7 record, a fourth-place finish in the Pac-10 and a 24th-consecutive NCAA Championship bid.