Men’s tennis wins first ever over Air Force
At this point in time, it can be hard to be “first” doing anything. Not so for the men’s tennis team, whose 4-3 win this past weekend against Air Force made it the first time in school history that USU has ever beat AFA.
“[We are] extremely, extremely happy,” said men’s tennis team captain Jason Trask. “It was a really big match. We have never beat Air Force before, so it was really great.”
The win didn’t come easily. It started out tough for the Aggies, losing the doubles point, but they came back fighting hard during singles, and they really had to fight for it as five of the six matches went all three sets.
“It was a huge battle because both teams were so evenly matched,” Trask said. “It was something amazing.”
Roshan Rasekhi and Hannes Schenk rounded up the first two wins for the men, beating their opponents 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 and 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 respectively.
“We came in with good confidence and a strong team,” said Rasekhi. “It got us up to a good start.”
They weren’t the only Aggies to contribute to the win, however, as Trask and Jonah Nelson stepped it up for the win. Trask defeated Air Force’s Justin Mancinelli, in a grueling three-hour match, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6. Nelson downed his opponent 6-1, 4-6, 7-6.
Hungsoon Park, who performed well in the fall preseason, fell to Air Force’s Shannon Buck, who has been ranked as high as 32nd in the country, losing 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a tough three sets. Aggie Ryan Bair also fell, but the Aggies had already secured the win.
Unfortunately, the women’s tennis team did not do as well against BYU, falling 7-0, but they aren’t discouraged.
“I feel like it went pretty good,” said women’s team captain Richelle Ferguson. “We had a couple of nerves, but we will do better next time.”
The women’s match wasn’t quite the battle that the men’s was, at least according to the results, but according to Ferguson the team still came out, played hard and had fun.
The team is young, with four new freshmen this year, and BYU, ranked 45th in the nation, took full advantage of that.
Aggie Lindsay Bennion fell to BYU’s Barbora ZahnoJones 6-1, 6-2. Sophomore Andrea Hansen came the closest to winning, pushing BYU’s Nicole Schneiderre Jill Smith fell to Sofia Holden of BYU the same way, 6-1, 6-0. Ferguson went down to Lauren to 7-5 in the second match before falling asova 6-1,6-0. Sophom well.
“The results weren’t good, but it got us on our feet and got us going,” said Ferguson. “We learned on what parts of our game we need to work on. BYU is one of the hardest teams we will face this season, so it will get us geared up for the rest of it.
“In all the years I’ve played, we start out a little nervous, but after a couple of matches we play better,” she added.
Both teams are now getting ready to continue their season. The men are heading down to BYU on Friday and then to the University of Utah on the 30th. They are looking to continue performing well and “just bring our A game, Trask said.
The women have a break before they host Gonzaga here on Feb. 2.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu