TEMPE - Facing a formidable deficit with Arizona State's men's tennis undefeated streak on the line, Sun Devils senior Mathis Bondaz stared across the net and didn't blink.
Down 5-2 in a recent deciding third set singles match against San Diego's Stian Klaassen, Bondaz rallied to force a tiebreak, eventually winning 7-4. It was a defining moment in a Sun Devils season that has captured national attention.
Bondaz's 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) victory clinched the team victory for the Sun Devils, who moved up in the ITA's top-25 rankings to No. 22. This marked the second win in a week against the No. 10 Toreros, and gave the Sun Devils a 9-0 start to the season, a win total the team did not reach until March 16 last season. The 9-0 start also marked the longest win streak to begin a season in program history.
"I practiced for this moment," said Bondaz, who hails from Marseille, France. "I always believe that I can win."
After dropping a match to No. 25 Pepperdine last Sunday, the Sun Devils currently sit at 9-1 overall, including a pair of victories against San Diego and Princeton in the ITA's Kickoff Weekend event that qualified the Sun Devils for the ITA Indoor National Championship, which starts Friday and runs through Feb. 17, and will be hosted by Baylor and SMU.
"For us, it is not a big surprise that we qualified because we put in a lot of work and we really focus on what we're doing working every single day to achieve things like that," Bondaz said.
For coach Matt Hill and the Sun Devils, this is their second appearance in the championship in the past three years. His past experience with the event offered insight as he prepares his team for the grueling tournament in Texas.
"It's a tough weekend physically for the guys. You're guaranteed three matches in a row. So that's a very tough physical test for the guys when you're playing back to back hot really high level opponents," Hill said. "One day after the next win or lose. You really gotta be mentally prepared going into that. You gotta be smart about how you take care of your guys' bodies before you're going into that."
The opportunity to compete against the nation's best has provided a great deal of excitement for the ASU players.
"We are super excited about this event coming up but we don't have a lot of pressure. We're just gonna do what we've been doing in the past months," Bondaz said.
Junior Jelani Sarr, a transfer from South Carolina who is in his first season with the Sun Devils, is excited to share the experience with his teammates.
"It's always fun to be traveling on the road with your teammates who are also your best friends," Sarr said. "It's just a test of how well we can compete and how well we can bounce back from this last loss (to Pepperdine). It's gonna be fun to see how we do."
Sarr leads the team with seven singles wins this season and was named Big 12 Player of the Week on Jan. 27.
"He would rather lose his left arm than lose a tennis match," Hill said.
Despite a program that is made up of seven transfers and eight different nationalities - players came to Tempe from Slovenia, France, Israel, Cyprus, Japan, Serbia, Slovakia and Baltimore - getting acclimated to one another was anything but difficult.
"Hanging out with these guys every day is a treat," Sarr said.
Sarr is the only American on the roster, but he enjoyed the time spent with his teammates as soon as he stepped on campus.
"The language barrier is there a little bit sometimes, but their English is getting better, and it’s fun to see them improve that," he said. "It’s also fun being around them because they bring such different cultures to practice. So outside of practice, we all just mesh well really good together since the first week."
When building the roster for this season, Hill's utilization of the transfer portal was not by preference.
"If I'm being honest, I would prefer to bring in a young player that's super gifted and learns our system from the jump because when we're playing players from other teams we're having to reframe their thinking potentially restructure their games in ways that we see it differently or how we go about things," Hill said. "So sometimes that's actually counterproductive and harder for us to get our job done as opposed to bringing in a young player that doesn't have those experiences."
Nonetheless, Hill believes there is value to be had from recruiting from the transfer portal.
"There's no question there's a value added to the experience of college tennis and nothing is new to them when they start with us from seeing the level knowing the level knowing the physicality of it knowing the environment of it," he said. "Those are things that junior players typically don't have a lot of experience with even if they've played some men's matches."
As the players prepare for the ITA Indoor National Championship, embracing the grind is key.
"It's really a focus on the process every single day and not really on the outcome. I've been in universities as they want to win a lot and sometimes it's tough to get the win because you're focused on the outcome way more than on the process," Bondaz said.
With an experienced and well-traveled group, the Sun Devils look to continue their hot start throughout the rest of spring season with Big 12 play lurking in March after ITA Indoor National Championship.