Men’s tennis team opens season
The Utah State men’s tennis team opened the first half of the 2005-06 season with encouraging results at the Iman’s Court Open this past weekend at BYU.
“It went good,” Coach Christian Wright said. “Everybody played at least two or three singles. Overall, we played solid and competed well. The main thing was just to get some experience.”
In Thursday’s second-round action, four Aggies posted wins in singles competitions while three of the doubles teams were victorious. The winners in the singles bracket included seniors Joao Pinho and Hannes Schenk, junior Dantley Young and freshman Bryan Merchant.
Second-round winners in the doubles bracket included the teams of Pinho with J. J. Netto, Merchant with Jonas Tyden and Schenk with Lukas Bouton.
The third day of competition consisted mostly of consolation matches for USU, with only Schenk and Young posting wins in the singles bracket. In the doubles bracket, both USU teams lost their matches.
This year’s men’s team returns six lettermen. They include the two seniors, Schenk and second team all-conference singles player Joao Pinho. The four lettering underclassmen include juniors Young and Bouton and sophomores Tyden and Mike Banks.
This year’s newcomers are Brazillian J. J. Netto by way of South Carolina. Other newcomers include Austrian Johannes Zelle and freshman Bryan Merchant from Olympus High in Salt Lake.
Gone from last year’s roster is second team all-conference doubles player Roshan Rasekhi, due to eligibility problems. Others missing from the team this year include Brad Ferguson, Alex Thatcher and Brian Ballam who are currently serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The men’s team will now prepare for its next tournament which will be Oct. 13-16 at the University of Utah. The women’s team will be in action beginning Wednesday and continuing through the rest of the week as they open their fall campaign in Provo at the Brigham Young University Invitational.
-jhislop@cc.usu.edu