Women’s tennis falls to Portland in final match
Even after winning the double’s point for the first time since Feb. 28, the Utah State women’s tennis team wasn’t able to hold on, falling 4-3 to Portland Friday.
The doubles duos of Richelle Moon and Courtney Anderson, and Jill Smith and Lauren Monson, got the Aggies off to a great start with wins.
Anderson and Moon showed their perseverance in their victory. Down 4-7, the two came back to win five straight games to seal the match, 9-7.
“We just decided to start playing,” said Anderson of the duo’s comeback. “We became aggressive, and switched from defensive to offensive. We were sick of losing.”
Monson and Smith walked away from their match with a convincing 8-5 win in the pro set.
“It was really great having the momentum going into singles play,” Monson said. “We haven’t won the doubles point in awhile.”
Despite the team’s success in doubles, in singles play, Carolyn Stephens and Anderson were the only victors for the Ags. Stephens hit on all cylinders against Portland’s Becky Correll, winning
6-3, 6-0.
Anderson made herself 2-0 on the day with a dominating 6-0 win in the first set of her match against Portland’s Alyson Tyson.
Anderson won the first game of the second set, before Tyson was forced to prematurely end the match due to a nagging knee injury.
“I was on fire,” Anderson said. “My serves were on today.”
Lindsey Bennion, the Aggies’ number one singles player, has been consistently good for USU all year. Against Portland’s powerful Cristin Sammis, Bennion started off the match winning the first set 6-4. But Sammis came back strong in the second set, winning 6-0. In the third, the two went back and forth and Sammis finished a great match winning 7-5.
Playing in the court next to Bennion, number two singles player Smith faced a similar fate, losing her match 7-5, 6-2. Smith’s and her opponent Kaori Tanabe, battled all match long, but Smith seemed unable to get any breaks against Tanabe.
“That girl kept Jill on her heels,” said Head Coach Christian Wright. “But I thought Jill competed very hard.”
After Bennion and Smith’s simultaneous losses, the score was 3-3, and it came down to number six singles Andrea Hansen. Hansen had been in this situation before, in a loss against Weber State on Feb. 11. Hansen played tough, surviving several match-point situations, but lost the match, 2-6, 6-3, 3-6.
“Andrea did a good job coming back,” Wright said. “She was the aggressor and she kept that girl on her toes.”
Friday’s loss puts the Aggies at 4-9 in spring play. Wright said the loss was especially tough because they had so many chances to win it.
“We were up 3-1, and I thought we were going to close it out any second,” Wright said. “This is a tough one to lose.”
Utah State will be on the road next week to face Idaho on April 8, and Boise State on April 9. The Aggies hope to put a halt to their five-game losing streak.
-bcb@cc.usu.edu