Men’s tennis team to face Pacific in the first round of the BWC tourney
It’s do or die time for the Utah State University men’s tennis team when the Aggies take the court against the University of the Pacific Thursday at 8 a.m. in Ojai, Calif.
The two teams will face off for the second time this season, only this time it will be at the Big West Conference Championships with the loser being eliminated from the single elimination tournament.
Should the Aggies (7-12) beat the Tigers (11-7) they will play the winner of the University of California Irvine/University of California Riverside match on Friday.
“I was excited to see that we’re playing them [UOP] again,” Head Coach Chris Wright said. “It’s a team that we don’t play very often, and I feel like we matched up fairly well when we played them.
“They just converted a lot better than we did on break point opportunities,” he said.
Wright was referring to UOP’s 7-0 victory over the Aggies Feb. 25 in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
In that match, the Tigers were able to capture tightly-contested first sets in each singles match, propelling UOP to the win, Wright said.
Although the Aggies were swept by the Tigers, they did win one of the three doubles matches, and USU’s Jason Trask and Steve Peterson dropped matches that could have gone either way, Wright said.
“If we take care of our serve we’re going to be right there,” he said.
In order to give themselves a chance to beat the reigning Big West champs, Wright said the Aggies need to play with a lot of intensity and work hard for every point.
“They [the players] know that they’re going to have to really scrap to get a win against Pacific,” he said.
However, Wright also said he feels there is a lot of parity of the Big West Conference, and no team is considerably stronger than another team.
He said beating the Tigers would involve a complete team effort, nevertheless.
“If we can get all six players to play up to their potential then we have a chance to beat any one of those teams down there,” Wright said.
Not only does USU feel confident it can beat Pacific, Wright said the schedule it played helped prepare the Aggies for the Big West tourney.
“I can’t think of any real weak spots on our schedule,” he said. “We had Portland State which is a young program, and that was kind of one-sided for us, but the rest was [pretty tough].”
One thing is for certain: The tennis players are excited to play at a facility rooted with an extensive tennis background, Wright said.
“It’s a beautiful venue to play the tournament,” he said. “[The town] has a really rich tennis history.”