Men’s tennis serves up win
The Aggies showed that home is where the heart is, improving to 2-0 at home Saturday as they defeated Nevada 5-2.
“We have always had good matches against them,” said Utah State Head Coach Chris Wright. “We have played them almost every year as long as I have been here.”
Over the years the two teams have traded off wins. This year, the Ags were in control.
“We played really well,” said senior and team captain Jason Trask. “It was a good win for the team. Everyone came out and competed.”
Trask pulled his fourth-straight win in singles play, defeating Nevada’s Daniel Ericsson 6-0, 6-1 at the number three singles spot.
Trask along with Ryan Bair was also able to defeat the Nevada duo of Milos Popovic and Max Volger 8-6 in doubles play.
The Aggies were once again unable to get the doubles point for the sixth-straight match as Hungsoon Park and Roshan Rasekhi fell to Nevada’s Adam Jooste and Ericsson 8-6 and Hannes Schenk and Jonah Nelson fell to Rudolf Leuschner and Brandon Sieh 8-5.
The Aggies were, however, able to pull it together and come up with five wins in singles play.
“I anticipated it to be a good match,” Wright said. “The doubles gave them some momentum going into singles play, but we bounced back after.”
All the tennis players kept their matches to straight-set wins. Park, playing at the number one singles position, picked up a win against Nevada’s Jooste 7-5, 6-3. He was joined by Schenk and Nelson as they each defeated the Wolfpack’s Popovic and Sieh with the same score 6-2, 6-4.
Bair managed to bump out UN’s Rafal Stupka in a close match 7-6, 7-6. Rasekhi was the only Aggie player to be defeated in singles play giving UN’s Leuschner a tough match before falling 6-4, 6-4.
“I was really happy with our singles play,” Wright said. “They were playing the point, not thinking ahead or too far back. It was not only a physical effort but a mental one as well.”
Despite a streak of difficult losses on the road, a determined Utah State squad was prepared to bounce back against Nevada that narrowly edged the Ags last year 4-3.
“I knew we would have a big advantage playing at home,” Trask said. “We were still pretty confident even though we’d had some tough losses.”
Nelson said, “It definitely feels pretty good to get a win after a few losses. The team came out and played better.”
Nelson said the team was looking to come out with a lot of intensity and play stronger.
“[We wanted] to be confident and not doubt ourselves as a team,” Nelson said. “We want to keep building as a team.”
The Aggies will look to do just that as they face Weber State next week at home for the third time this season. The match will start at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Sports Academy and Racquet Club.
Women’s tennis will also take on Weber State this week. The lady Ags will face off against the Wildcats Wednesday at 1 p.m. in Logan.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu