Women’s tennis advances to BWC tourney second round
The rematch has been set.
With a 4-2 win over UC Riverside on Thursday, the Utah State women’s tennis team advances to face top-seeded Cal Poly in the second round of the Big West Championships.
The No. 9 seeded Aggies (9-9) will meet the Mustangs (17-6) on Friday at 11:30 a.m. in Danville, Calif.
Because of bad weather and a chance of rain, said Utah State Head Coach Chris Wright in a phone interview, the Aggies played singles first against UCR (9-14). It was the second straight match USU has played singles first, and once again it came down to three-setters at the end.
For the Aggies, Shelly Ferguson at No. 5 and Jill Smith at No. 4 both won in two sets. Ferguson defeated Miranda Lagac, 6-3, 6-3 and Smith topped Carolyn Mitchell, 7-6, 6-3.
The Highlanders also picked up a couple of matches in two sets, though.
In the No. 2 match, Wright said Carolyn Larsen gave a good effort, but couldn’t take control in her match against UCR’s Casey Cross.
“The effort was there,” Wright said. “She just about took over the momentum a couple of times.”
Cross was able to hold on, though, to defeat Larsen 6-4, 6-3.
The other Riverside win came at No. 6 with Lindsay Litvinoff defeating Haley Hawkins, 7-5, 6-2.
Wright said Hawkins was serving for the first set at 5-3, but couldn’t hold on and then couldn’t recover from the momentum swing.
The match then came down to whether two of Utah State’s top singles players -who both lost in their final regular season match to Idaho State – could pull out victories.
At No. 1 singles, Caroline Pollock, who had already won eight matches on the season, was able to edge Michelle Beyronneau 7-5 to take the match lead. Beyronneau rebounded to win 6-2 in the second, but third set belonged to Pollock.
She went on to roll over Beyronneau in with a 6-1 victory.
“She did a great job,” Wright said.
The other three-set match resulted in an Aggie victory by Lindsey Bennion at No. 3. She split the first two sets with Kelley Takeshita with identical 7-5 score, but came back to take the third, 6-3, and guarantee the victory.
“They did a good job. Everybody competed hard,” Wright said of his team’s performance.
The win extends the Aggies’ win streak to three for the second time this season.
Against Cal Poly, USU lost 7-0 in California on March 11. The Mustangs are 8-1 in the Big West conference, with their only loss coming at the hands of UC Irvine.
The Aggies feel good about their chances, though, and are expecting to perform well.
“They got seeded No. 1 because they deserved it,” Wright said. “They are beatable and we’re excited. I think it’ll be fun.”
If the Aggies are victorious, they’ll move on Saturday to play the winner of the UC Santa Barbara/CS Northridge matchup. A loss would drop the Aggies into the fifth place bracket to play the loser of the UCSB/CSN match.
Wright said the weather is supposed to be about the same as Thursday, with a 50 percent chance of rain. If weather is a factor, the matches will be held indoors.
Overall though, Wright said the team’s mood is good and the players are excited to be playing.
“They’re pumped for a rematch,” he said.
This is the second- straight year the Aggies have won their first round match, and one more win in the tournament would give them their most season wins ever.
-slbk5@cc.usu.edu