ASU women’s tennis looks to make history as NCAA Tournament begins

TEMPE – It’s easy for coaches and players to talk about culture from the inside of a program. That talk gains credibility when the same view exists from the outside.

In the case of the 2025-26 ASU women’s tennis team, that credibility comes from none other than former coach Sheila McInerney, who coached the Sun Devils for 40 seasons, from 1984-2024.

Under McInerney’s guidance, the Sun Devils made 36 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. She was twice named Pac-12 Coach of the Year and she reached the NCAA Sweet 16 18 times.

McInerney attended every one of the team’s home matches as a fan this season and noted how, even from the stands, she could see how close this team was.

“They’re a super group of kids,” McInerney said. “They’re very good students, they carry themselves very well on and off the court. I think they get along very well as a team and I think you can tell just watching them play.”

Under second-year coach Jamea Jackson, the team has the chance to do something the program has not seen in a quarter century.

When the No. 15 Sun Devils face Denver in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe at 1 p.m. on Friday, they’ll be seeking their 20th win of the season. That would match the mark set by the 2001 team and not reached since.

ASU already has the blueprint for this matchup. The Devils swept Denver 4-0 on Feb. 21 at the Red Blue Invite in Tucson, perhaps giving them a psychological and tactical edge heading into the tournament.

If the Sun Devils can win that match, a date with the winner of No. 19 UCLA vs. San Diego State awaits in the round of 32.

“We’ve been working hard to get to this point,” assistant coach Diego Nava said. “(We’ve had a) little bit of luck here and there but it’s the fruit of the labor for sure. It starts way back and you’ve got to put the time in on the court from the very beginning to get results like this.”

The Sun Devils closed out the regular season by winning nine straight dual matches and finished with 19 wins, tying the third-most in program history since women’s tennis became an NCAA sanctioned sport in 1982.

Hard work itself can only get a team so far, however. Nava said a team needs buy-in from the individuals to accomplish something truly special.

“This stuff doesn’t happen if there’s one person on the team that doesn’t show up,” he said. “It’s a credit to the whole team. Our girls are very dedicated and they’ve committed to the way we want to run our program.”

Nava, who played five seasons of collegiate tennis at Loyola Marymount and Xavier and coached two at Louisville, said this team doesn’t have any cliques and is one cohesive group.

“I’ve never been around a team that supports each other this much. I think that’s why they’re so special,” he said.