Women’s tennis off to California
It will be all about making little adjustments for the Utah State women’s tennis team when it travels to California for its first extended road trip of the season.
The trip will also mark the first Big West Conference matches of the season for the Aggies (2-2). UC Santa Barbara (6-4) is up first Saturday, followed by Pacific (2-9) on Monday, both in Stockton, Calif. The road trip concludes Tuesday against Cal Poly (7-4) in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
The main adjustment USU will have to make is dealing with the change in elevation, especially since it has only played in Utah and Idaho.
Aggie Head Coach Chris Wright said the ball drops faster at sea level, and he has had the team working in practice at getting enough power into shots.
“We’ve got to stay low on our shots, step in and take them early for ground-strokes,” he said. “Then on the serve there are a couple of technical things we do to get a little more clearance.”
Co-captain Caroline Pollock had the opportunity to play in California last season and knows firsthand about the differences.
“You always have to generate a little more power in California,” she said. “The ball doesn’t fly as well, but it will get balls in for us. I hope we can use it to our advantage.”
Another difference is the matches will be held outside, a first this season for the Aggies, who have been playing and practicing indoors in Logan.
“We’ve got to get used to the wind, the sun, all of those things,” Wright said.
The Aggie players are looking forward to finally playing outside, though.
“I’m totally looking forward to that. It will be so fun,” said co-captain Shelly Ferguson. “It’s a lot different than inside, but I love it.”
The difference between the elevation and playing outside could be an advantage for USU’s opponents.
“They’re playing outside all the time, so they’re going to be used to what we’re coming into, what we’re trying to get used to, playing under those conditions,” Wright said. “I expect really tough matches, but matches we can win if we’re playing our game.”
In addition to the conditions, there is also the fatigue factor involved with playing three matches in four days.
By the time they play again, the Aggies will have had 16 days off since their last match. They should be well rested for the first match, but their quickest turnaround thus far has been five days, not the one and two days they’ll be dealing with.
Despite this, Wright said he feels the team is in shape and the players have mostly healed from the minor injuries they have had to deal with.
Ferguson was one player who was injured, and she missed a week of practice due to a pulled muscle in her back. She said she has been working with a trainer and going easy in practice to make sure she doesn’t aggravate it further.
She said she expects to play though, and fatigue shouldn’t be too big of a factor.
If Utah State is able to make the necessary adjustments, it can help itself for the future by picking up wins over conference opponents.
“If we do well, which we can do well, it can get us a good seed going into [the] conference [tournament] and maybe we can get a couple rounds further than before,” Pollock said.
Wright said although the Big West has been a strong tennis conference, he expects his players to be competitive and successful.
“I know we have the talent and we’ve just got to focus really well and play our game,” he said.
The Aggies will play one additional conference match before the Big West tournament in April.
–slbk5@cc.usu.edu