Tennis team no match for Warriors
The Utah State women’s tennis team fell 4-3 to Hawai’i Wednesday after losing a couple close matches.
The Rainbow Warriors came out firing, winning all three of the doubles matches in what would become a very important point after the two teams tied in the singles matches.
No. 1 singles pair Lindsey Bennion and Carolyn Stephens gave the Hawai’i pair the most competition. But it wasn’t enough for the Aggies, as the pair lost 8-6.
In singles play, the Bows continued to play well at the beginning. All but one Hawai’i player won their first set. Courtney Anderson was the lone Aggie to take the first set after she took it 7-6 (5) in the tiebreak.
“As long as I hit my shot, I would usually win the point,” Anderson said. “I tried to go to the net as much as I could.”
Anderson went on to win the second set 6-1 to win the match. Anderson said she didn’t play well at doubles Wednesday but she said she was near the top of her game in singles.
However, the Aggies came up short in their singles matches.
“We couldn’t get that other point,” Utah State Head Coach Christian Wright said. “We just had too many unforced errors.”
Jill Smith won her match after Sylvia Jaros retired when Smith was up 3-0 in her first set.
Lauren Monson lost her first set 4-6 before coming back to win 6-3 and 6-4. After losing her first set and being down 5-2, Stephens made a run to get to 5-4 before Hawai’i’s Justine Boutet closed the match and won 6-3, 6-4.
“We showed that you are never out of it,” Wright said. “You have to believe you can turn it around and we had some examples of that.”
Bennion lost her No. 1 singles match 6-3, 6-2 and Andrea Barker lost 6-2, 6-3 to give the Bows the wins they needed to close out the meet with a win.
In doubles, Smith and Monson, who were moved to No. 2 doubles at the end of March, lost 8-3. Anderson and Barker also lost 8-5.
With the loss the Aggies fell to 9-10 on the season with three matches remaining before the Big West Conference Tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., April 21 through the 24.
The Aggies will play again at noon on Sunday against Eastern Washington at the Sports Academy. In the two teams’ earlier meeting the Aggies won 7-0.
-krn@cc.usu.edu
Aggie Courtney Anderson (Photo by John Zsiray)