Mixed bag for tennis team last weekend
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – This past weekend proved to be both good and bad for USU tennis after the men’s and women’s teams turned in mixed results on the road.
Coming out on the good side were the men, who posted a 2-1 record in three-straight days of matches, improving their overall record to 3-4.
The weekend began for the men with an easy 6-1 victory over the University of Northern Colorado Bears Friday afternoon in Las Cruces.
“It was nice to have that match before playing the two conference teams,” said coach Christian Wright. “We hadn’t played outdoors for a while, so there were some adjustments to make. It was a good match. They fought really hard.”
In doubles, the Aggies swept the Bears, winning all three matches. At the No. 1 spot, senior Joao Pinho replaced junior Dantley Young in a switch designed to help the Aggies mix things up.
“I liked Dantley and Johannes together,” Wright said, “but we didn’t seem to be getting the holds and the break opportunities that we wanted to. We thought we might juggle ’em up since it’s still kinda early.”
In singles, the Aggies won at every spot except the No. 3, where J.J. Netto continued to struggle, losing to UNC’s Vinnie Fallico, 6-1, 6-2.
Saturday’s action was not so kind for the USU men, as they lost to host team New Mexico State, 7-0.
“We were in a lot of those matches,” Wright said. “The games went back and forth. There were a number of matches where it would go deuce, ad-in, deuce ad-out.”
Wright said, “Some of the scores were a little bit misleading, but it was still a one-sided win for them.”
On Sunday, the Aggies fought through windy conditions to record another 6-1 victory, this time over the Vandals of the University of Idaho.
“It was really windy,” Wright said. “The conditions weren’t great, but our players responded well.”
On the women’s side, it was a contrastingly different story.
The first day of their trip was a stop in El Paso, Texas, for a Friday afternoon match with the UTEP Miners.
Though the Aggies lost 5-2 to UTEP, the story here was the winning streak of sophomore Courtney Anderson. She extended her winning streak to five matches with a win Friday over UTEP’s Katherine Palider, 4-6, 7-6(8-6), 13-11, as well as a win Saturday against North Texas’ Aziza Aba Butain, 6-1, 6-3.
“She’s got a very well-rounded game,” Wright said. “She can stay back or go to the net. She’s very comfortable doing either.”
Wright said, “The big difference between her and her opponent is that she just fights so hard.”
After UTEP, the women joined the men in Las Cruces for Saturday and Sunday matches.
On Saturday, the USU women and men pulled together to cheer on freshman Dee Dee Nelson, who played in the women’s final and deciding match of the day.
It took three sets, but Nelson pulled out the victory for herself and her teammates in a 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 thriller over North Texas’ Megan Schmulbach.
“We did a great job getting the doubles point,” Wright said. “Going into singles, it was a really solid effort from everybody. It came down to Dee Dee and we had a lot of confidence in her ability to do it.”
Nelson’s match was a see-saw battle the until the third set when she broke Schmulbach’s serve to win the match.
The next day, the women took on New Mexico State and fared very similar to the men, losing 5-2.
“Everybody was feeling it a little bit on the third day,” Wright said. “We definitely weren’t as fresh as we would’ve liked to have been.”
The USU women played NMSU close in singles with two of the matches going three sets.
However, the women were unable to capitalize on any of them.
The Aggies, both men and women, now turn their attention to this week as the women travel to Idaho State for a Tuesday match with the Bengals.
The men will also be in action, taking on Weber State at the Sports Academy and Racquet Club’s tennis center this Friday at 1p.m.
-jhislop@cc.usu.edu