TEMPE, Ariz. – Despite fending off the No. 2-ranked TCU, Arizona State was no match for the Horned Frogs.

In front of a packed crowd at the Whiteman Tennis Center on March 20, TCU (13-4, 2-0 Big 12) won the doubles point, and singles matches three, four, and five to defeat No. 25 ASU (13-6, 0-1 Big 12) 4-1. While the Horned Frogs were ranked higher, the Sun Devils didn't go without a fight and battled the whole night. 

“We have to get more organized in the critical moments of the matches to keep a team like that down,” head coach Matt Hill said. “Man, it's frustrating. It's frustrating that we're leaving here with a loss.” 

TCU set the tone early by sweeping the doubles point, winning 6-4 and 6-4, respectively. 

In match one, the No. 2-ranked doubles team, senior Cosme Rolland De Ravel and junior Duncan Chan, defeated junior Jelani Sarr and senior Roi Genat in a back-and-forth contest to move to 11-0 on the season. 

In match two, the Sun Devils jumped ahead as junior Bor Artnak and sophomore Ofek Shimanov led sophomore Albert Pedrico and sophomore Cooper Woestendick 4-1. But that was erased quickly as the Frogs won five straight, finishing off ASU to take the point. 

“I thought they just let their foot off the gas just enough to let TCU back in it,” Hill said, “and when you let a team like that breathe a little bit, they're going to run with that for sure.

Shimanov and Artnak started doubles really well but faltered down the stretch. 

“The energy dropped down a little bit,” Shimanov said. 

However, Shimanov’s energy picked right back up in his singles match facing No. 7, Duncan Chan. While his match ended unfinished, Shimanov was up 5-2 in the deciding set. 

“After the doubles, I took a little bit of time to go wash my face a little bit and put water and ice on my face to recover from this one because it was a tough loss,” Shimanov said. “But you have to keep going. If you are going to get stuck on the doubles, you are going to lose the singles really, really quick.”

Although Shimanov was very pleased with his performance, Hill believed that he could have played better. 

“Zero-love up, he played three loose points with first-ball errors,” Hill said. “You just can't give a player of that caliber, those three freebies, kind of at that moment, the match.

“Those three points literally cost you an hour of tennis.” 

The lone Sun Devil point came from Artnak, who faced off against No. 25 singles-ranked Rolland De Ravel. However, the match did not finish as Rolland De Ravel sustained an injury and forfeited in the fifth set. 

Artnak, ASU’s No.1 player,  was winning 3-1 in the game but was still disappointed both with the matchup and the result. 

“I came into the match feeling really well, playing well for the last couple weeks, so I was really excited about this match,” Artnak said. 

TCU flipped its top two players for the match against the Sun Devils as Rolland De Ravel played in match one and Chan played in match two. 

“I was kind of surprised,” Artnak said. “I wanted to play the No. 7 guy in the nation.” 

For Shimanov, it did not matter who was facing him on the court. 

“I mean, everyone is at the same level, the level is so high, and everyone is good, you know, you have to stay there, you have to fight, and you have to find the rhythm. It doesn't matter against who.” Shimanov said. 

Coach Hill looks forward to putting this match in the past, as the Sun Devils have a big stretch of matches coming up. 

“Who doesn't want to beat those guys tonight? Right? Everybody does, but we're not going to let that distract us from our goals,” Hill said. “We have way bigger goals than beating TCU in tonight's game.”