Men’s tennis to battle BYU in Provo
Chris Wright, head coach of the Utah State men’s tennis team, isn’t one who likes to take more than a week’s break between matches.
However, after playing three matches in three days at the UNLV Invitational, Wright said the near two-week break was just what the Aggies needed.
USU (2-6) will return to action Friday when it travels to Provo to take the court against No. 67-ranked BYU (75 teams are ranked). The Aggies were scheduled to play in-state rival Weber State University Feb. 18, but the two teams decided to re-schedule because they played each other three days earlier in Las Vegas.
“I personally wanted to hurry and get that rematch back out there, but physically we weren’t quite as sharp as we would have wanted to be, so it’s good we had a little bit of rest,” Wright said.
With the extra week of rest, Aggie players Andrew Marsh and Jason Trask had a chance to recover from illness and injury. Trask was unable to play in USU’s match against the Wildcats, due to a stomach flu, while Marsh has been dealing with knee problems.
Having a healthy team is imperative against what Marsh and Wright said is an always solid BYU squad. The Cougars (5-4) are consistently among the top teams in the Mountain West Conference, and are coming off a big 4-3 road win over No. 49 University of Arizona Wildcats.
However, that match took place three weeks ago (Feb. 8), meaning the Cougars might be a little bit rusty, Wright said.
“I wouldn’t want a three-week layoff, so hopefully it works in our favor,” he said.
Another thing that would seem to work in USU’s favor is the unavailability of BYU’s top two singles players. Cougars Erik Nyman and Carlos Lozano will sit out Friday’s match, according to a BYU press release, due to the NCAA’s 25-match limit rule.
The 25-match limit rule limits a player from competing in more than 25 matches — some tournaments only counting as one match — during an academic year, Wright said. Because Nyman and Lozano are in danger of exceeding that limit, they will not play Friday, but will play in BYU’s remaining matches.
Regardless of whether or not Lozano and Nyman were able to play, the Aggies have a tall order ahead of them as BYU has won the last 10 meetings between the two schools.
When asked about the Cougars, Wright said he expects them to be as good as always, but feels BYU might not be as good as it has been the last couple of years.
“They’ve lost a couple of key players that played high for them over the last two seasons,” he said. “They’ve had an amazing team the last couple of years, and they’re still solid, but I don’t think they’re as good as they’ve been.”
Nevertheless, both Wright and Marsh said the Aggies will have to play their best tennis if they want to pull off the upset. In order to do this, Marsh said it is essential Utah State capitalizes on its break-point opportunities.
“If we can convert on a lot of break points, we’ll give ourselves a chance,” he said. “If we go down there really confident and win some big points, we’ll do all right, but they’re really strong and really deep.
“They don’t let up at all, so we’re going to have to be more aggressive, and fight for it harder than them,” he said.
–jasonwturner@cc.usu.edu