Men’s Tennis team remains on road
After playing its last nine matches outside the state of Utah, the Utah State University men’s tennis team returns to the Beehive state to take on in-state rival BYU Friday at 6 p.m. in Provo.
“We have to go in there and have good enthusiasm [and] have our concentration up to its highest level,” Head Coach Chris Wright said.
Despite BYU entering Friday’s match with a 2-5 record, Wright said the Cougars are a very good team with a deceptive record. BYU has yet to play at home, and played top 20 teams the University of Southern California (No. 4) and the University of Washington (No. 18) close.
“I would say they’re the strongest team in the state, if not the region,” Wright said. “We have absolutely nothing to lose going down [to Provo].”
The Cougars, winners of last season’s Mountain West Conference Tournament, won their most recent match, capturing a 4-3 victory over the University of California Irvine.
Winners of two of its three matches in the UNLV Invitational Feb. 14 through 16, USU (4-8 on the season) was unable to carry over its momentum to the Cal Poly Invitational Feb. 23 through 25 dropping matches to Big West Conference foes Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara and Pacific.
Injuries have continued to plague Utah State this season, including an injury to No. 3 singles player Jonah Nelson, who has been limited to doubles action the last five matches.
When asked about the injuries, Wright said a lot of them can be attributed to the wear and tear of playing three matches in three days. With USU only playing BYU this week, Wright said it will be a welcomed change for an Aggie team that has played three matches in three days for three consecutive weeks.
“That can take a cumulative effect on even the healthiest teams, [and] it definitely showed up negatively for us,” he said.
In order for the Aggies to have a chance against the Cougars, Wright said they need to be mentally tough and capitalize on something they have struggled with all season – break-point opportunities.
“At times our focus has hurt us,” he said. “We’ve become frustrated mentally at times.”
Winning the doubles point wouldn’t hurt as well, he said.
“Whenever we’ve won the doubles point, we have won the match,” Wright said. “So, that’s a pretty telling sign.”
One Aggie who has been playing well as of late is No. 1 singles player Andy Madersbacher. The senior from Kramsach, Austria has won four of his last six singles matches. Jason Trask leads the Aggies with an 8-3 record, dropping all three of his matches in three sets.