USU faces former BWC rival
Matches on back-to-back days have been common this season for the Utah State University men’s tennis team. Playing them on its home court hasn’t been.
For the first time this season, the Aggies will play back-to-back home matches when they take on the University of Nevada Reno Friday at 1 p.m. and Sacramento State University Saturday at 9:30 p.m. Both matches will be held at the Sports Academy and Racquet Club.
When the Aggies take the court against Nevada, USU Head Coach Chris Wright said they will be playing against a team they are familiar with from the Wolf Pack’s days in the Big West Conference.
“We’ve had a good rivalry with them [Nevada] when they were in the Big West,” he said. “We’ve won the last couple matches, but every match has been a dogfight.”
Wright said USU defeated Nevada 6-1 or 5-2 in the UNLV Invitational last season, but the majority of the matches were three-setters.
“It’s going to come down to who wants it the most,” Wright said. “We need to go out there and run every ball down and mentally be ready for them.”
While the Aggies play the Wolf Pack on a regular basis, Wright said he’s not as familiar with Sacramento State and its players. However, he said he is very familiar with the Hornets’ recent success.
During the 2001 season, the Hornets went a whopping 20-3 en route to capturing their third Big Sky Conference championship in four years. Unfortunately for the Hornets, they drew national power Stanford University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, dropping their match to the Cardinals.
“They [the Hornets] probably could have won a couple of rounds in the NCAAs last year except they drew Stanford,” Wright said.
The Hornets haven’t had the same success they had last year as only one regular from last year’s squad returned. However, that regular is No. 1 singles player Sherif Zahen – a transfer from tennis power the University of Georgia Bulldogs.
In order for the Aggies to have a chance against the Hornets, Wright said they will have to the find a “happy medium” between counter-punching and attacking the short balls.
“They [the Hornets] attack a ton, so we’ve got to match that and not let them just put the pressure on us,” he said.
Sophomore Jason Trask continues to leadUSU in victories, posting a 9-4 so far this season.