Air Force Academy soars over USU
Fresh off a 5-2 season-opening victory over Idaho State University, Utah State University men’s tennis coach Chris Wright said he was confident his team could improve to 2-0 against the Air Force Academy.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, the Falcons were able to capture three closely-contested doubles matches and the Aggies were never able to recover, falling to Air Force 6-1 Friday afternoon at the Sports Academy.
“This is a match I definitely felt we should win,” Wright said. “We were in all the matches, we just got a little frustrated. I think we carried some frustration into the singles matches.”
In doubles, the team that wins at least two of the three matches wins the only team point awarded in doubles. Although the Aggies were only down 1-0 heading into their singles matches, Wright said the frustration factor from losing the doubles matches made a big difference come singles play.
“I think we were still a little bit frustrated we lost the doubles point,” he said. “We knew it would be a scrappy match. They just out-hustled us.”
Perhaps the most frustrating loss for the Aggies was in first doubles with USU’s Andy Madersbacher and Clayton Thomas dropping a 9-8 (7-1) decision to Chris and Greg Zielinski in a tie-breaker. Madersbacher and Thomas were ahead the entire match and had a 5-2 lead before the Zielinski brothers mounted a comeback.
Madersbacher, USU’s No. 1 singles player, also fell victim in another close match, losing a three-setter to Eric Pittman after rallying to force a third set.
“He [Pittman] did a really good job keeping the ball in the court and I was a little bit too anxious [in the third set],” Madersbacher said.
Like Madersbacher, Aggie Jordan Butler dropped a hard-fought three-setter, losing to Falcon Justin Mancinelli 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Trailing 3-2 in the third set, Butler had a couple of points to draw even with Mancinelli, only to drop the marathon game after several deuces. With momentum on his side, Mancinelli won the final three games of the set to win the match.
“We had a great chance to win two [more singles matches],” Madersbacher said. “Jordan [Butler] lost in the third set, Jason [Trask] won, I could have won. It’s just how it goes sometimes. That’s how tennis is.”
The lone Aggie who emerged victorious was No. 5 singles player Jason Trask. Trask, now 2-0 on the season, defeated Phil Yim 6-4, 6-2.
“Jason Trask had a good, solid win,” Wright said.
USU will return to action Saturday against the University of Utah in Salt Lake City at 5 p.m. In order for the Aggies to fare better against the Utes, Wright said they will need to play with more intensity.
“We can’t afford to go out there without 100 percent intensity or we won’t get the job done,” he said.