Women look to defeat Montana teams
After nearly a month without competition, the Utah State University women’s tennis team will travel to Bozeman, Mont., to play a pair of matches on its first road trip of the season.
The Aggies will play Friday against Montana State University and then meet the University of Montana Saturday.
Utah State coach Chris Wright said he doesn’t know too much about either team, though the Aggies did play Montana State last year in Hawaii, defeating MSU 4-3.
“I’m just going to go in expecting [MSU] to be tougher than they were last year,” Wright said. “We don’t know them. I’m going to try to keep the mindset to expect them to be tough, to expect them to be as good or better than any team we’ve played.”
The Aggies last played Jan. 23 in Pocatello, Idaho where they were victorious over Idaho State University, 4-3. In the final match, Aggie Carolyn Larsen came from behind to win the deciding point for the Aggies and even the team’s record at 2-2 for the season.
Though the Aggies have been off for more than two weeks, Wright said the break has been a good rest for the team and has allowed them to work on their game.
“We spent some time looking at different doubles combinations and worked just fundamentally on doubles concepts,” he said. “I think our understanding of what we need to be doing, hopefully, has improved.”
In their past two matches, the Aggies have fallen behind early after losing the doubles point. In practice, Wright said, the team has been focusing on improving its doubles play.
Wright said, “We had days where we focused on singles but at least two-thirds of the time we spent on doubles.”
USU has played two previous road matches this season, but this is the Aggies’ first multiple-day road trip. Wright said he doesn’t think focus on the road will be a problem though.
Team member Holly Anderson said, “I think actually being away you’re more focused. When we’re [home] I feel I need to get my workout done, I need to get my school work done, I need to get my laundry done, and then I have my match to play. Being on the road you don’t have any of those distractions because you’re going to your destination with a purpose. You’re there just to focus on tennis.”
Unless the Aggies have several long matches, fatigue also should not be a problem, Wright said.
He said, “If we have a lot of three-setters, then that will affect us. We might have to bring someone in that’s a reserve but I think we’re going to be OK. We’re pretty healthy.”
Anderson said, “We train a lot. We do weight lifting two times a week and running every day. I think physically we’re all capable.”
Utah State originally had three matches scheduled for this road trip, but canceled a match against the University of Idaho because the teams will meet later this season.