Utah State men split weekend matches
A weekend home sweep was not to be for the Utah State men’s tennis team as it lost to Northern Arizona on Friday, before rebounding to sweep Portland State on Saturday.
The Aggies are now 7-11 on the season, and will conclude their three-match homestand Wednesday against their fifth Big Sky Conference opponent in a row – Idaho State University.
USU 7, PSU 0
Having a deep squad is something USU Head Coach Chris Wright has said has been the team’s strength the entire season.
This was certainly the case Saturday, when Ryan Bair and Jacob Jensen – replacements for Hannes Schenk and Jonah Nelson in singles play – picked up decisive victories, leading the Aggies to a 7-0 rout of Portland State on Saturday at the Sports Academy in North Logan.
“I have a lot of confidence when those guys come in,” Wright said. “You can only have six singles players [in a match], and I always feel for those who are sitting. It’s just unfortunate … that’s just the format.”
With Schenk sitting out Saturday’s match with a pulled back muscle, suffered against NAU, and Nelson sitting out due to disciplinary actions, team depth was a must for the Aggies against the Vikings.
Saturday’s match was especially gratifying for Jensen, who had yet to play any singles or doubles match since March 5 against Weber State.
“It’s a great feeling,” Jensen said about getting a chance to play against PSU. “I’ve been watching for the last month or so, and I’ve been learning a lot from watching, but it really motivated me to get back on the court.”
Then again, motivation wasn’t a problem for any of the Aggies, who were still smarting from Friday’s loss to NAU.
“We should have won yesterday, especially after winning the doubles point,” Bair said. “It was a really demoralizing loss, but today really helps and gets us ready for ISU.”
Not only did Saturday’s sweep serve as a confidence booster heading into the Idaho State match, it also gave USU experience playing in the wind.
Both the Aggies and Vikings were forced to play in what Bair called “25 mph wind gusts” for the majority of the match, and it was the Aggies who had an easier time making the adjustments, Wright said.
For the fourth straight match, the Aggies captured the doubles point as the No. 2 tandem of Jason Trask and Brandon Butler defeated Mark Simpson and Colin Gillam, 8-4, and Andrew Marsh and Bair beat Robbie Eiford and Cole Sheldon, 8-3 at No. 3.
Nelson and Jordan Butler completed the sweep, with an 8-6 victory over Chuck Hazelwood and Beau Smith at the No. 1 spot.
In singles play, Trask picked up his fifth straight victory, 6-1, 6-4 over Smith at No. 1, Jordan prevailed over Simpson, 6-4, 6-3 at No. 3, and Marsh blew past Eiford, 6-2, 6-1 at No. 4.
Bair improved his singles record to 7-5 with a, 6-1, 6-0 drubbing of Sheldon at the No. 5 spot, while Jensen cruised past Gillam, 6-1, 6-3 at No. 6.
In the closest match of the day, Brandon squeaked past the big-serving Hazelwood 7-6 in the first set. He also won the second set, 6-2.
“When [Hazelwood’s] hitting it well, it’s got to be up to the 120s on some of those serves, so you just don’t have much to react and do a whole lot,” Wright said.
NAU 5, USU 2
Things were looking pretty promising for USU on Friday against Northern Arizona.
Heading into singles play, the Aggies had just won three closely-contested doubles matches against the Big Sky Conference-leading Lumberjacks and had momentum on their side.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, little did they know they would have to play two players down in singles, and would end up falling to NAU, 5-2 Friday afternoon at the Sports Academy.
Schenk was forced to retire from his No. 1 singles match after pulling a muscle in his back in the second set of his match against Fredrik Jeppsson, and Nelson was disqualified in his No. 3 singles match against Thibault Schram.
USU was never able to recover.
“Even with [the mishaps], we still felt we could turn the corner, it’s just tough that we didn’t,” Wright said.
Nelson appeared to have turned the corner in his match against Schram, running away with the first set 6-1.
In the first game of the second set, Schram called an overhead by Nelson long – the first of what Wright said were four questionable calls in a row.
“We actually called for the official to come over, because we felt like we got some bad calls, four in a row to be exact,” he said.
It went downhill from there. Within in a couple of minutes, Nelson was given a point penalty for swearing, a game penalty for ball abuse, and was disqualified for further verbal abuse.
Nelson’s disqualification was what Wright said was the culmination of acrimony between the two players from their doubles match.
“From the very beginning, they were both at each other’s throats,” he said. “There were things said in the doubles [match]. It’s not like they’re going to hang out tonight.”
The one Aggie who was able to pick up a singles victory was Trask, who topped Daniel Lundstrom, 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 2 position.
In doubles action, Jordan and Nelson outlasted Schram and Lundstrom, 9-8 at No. 1, Trask and Brandon defeated Jeppsson and Jonas Jegers, 8-6 at No. 2.
Schenk and Bair overcame a 7-4 deficit to eke past Francisco Lando and Ronson Taylor, 9-8 at the No. 3 spot.
“I couldn’t have been more pleased with how we went out there in doubles,” Wright said.
-jasonwturner@cc.usu.edu