Eagles top Aggies amid chaos
The USU men’s tennis team was edged out Saturday by Eastern Washington, 4-3, in their first outdoor match of the season, a match that was very vocal and competitive.
“I was proud of my guys. They fought hard,” Head Coach Chris Wright said. “We came up short in the win column, but we played with more sportsmanship.”
Many times throughout the matches, played at the Sports Academy and Raquet Club, Aggie players were left speechless at the calls being made by Eastern Washington players.
“When people act unfair it really affects you, especially when no one sees it and you really don’t know what’s going on,” team Captain Hannes Schenk said.
Although Schenk said he had no problems with his opponent, he could hear the talking going on in other courts. But when it comes down to it, Schenk admitted, he just got outplayed.
“You hear it and overall I don’t find excuses. I just played bad,” Schenk said. “That’s why I lost – my opponent was better than me. I heard that on other courts they were affected by their opponents’ behavior. Behavior like that is unacceptable. Good luck to them with their bad behavior.”
Wright said, “I just told my guys to try and focus on what we have control over. I have never had anyone question us and our players like today.”
The doubles competition was close in all three matches, but USU ended up losing them. No. 1 doubles pair Jonas Tyden and Oscar Ericsson came up just short, losing 8-7. The No. 2 doubles team, Schenk and Dantley Young, went down to a tiebreaker, which the Eagles won, 9-8.
The Aggies were penalized when teammate Fernando Gallegos, who played in the No. 3 doubles, hit the ball out of the court at the end of his match. The penalty is enforced and assessed to the next highest match in play, which was that of Tyden and Ericcson.
“Our guy at the end of the match smacked the ball out of the court,” Wright said. “He wasn’t thinking. If the ball leaves the court, it’s a penalty. Fernando is a team player and he apologized and it is over.”
USU faired better in the singles matches and got back into the match by having three players win their respective individual matches.
Junior Mike Banks improved his singles record to 6-2 by winning in straight sets 6-0, 6-2 in the No. 6 singles match. Gallegos also cruised to victory over his opponent Daniel Pez in straight sets 6-2, 6-1. After easily winning his first set 6-1, Jonas Tyden won the second set in a tie break 7-6 at the No. 3 singles spot.
Playing the No. 2 spot, Ericsson lost in straight sets, 7-6, 6-3. Teammate Young was able to recover from a first set loss to win the second set, 4-6, but lost in the third set, 6-3.
Schenk, USU’s No. 1 singles player with a 6-2 record going into his match against the Eagles’ Pannhara Mam, lost 6-1, 6-4.
“I was never able to get the grip,” Schenk said. “I got chances, and I never used them even though I had easy chances.”
He said he believes that competing outside for first time this year affected his play.
“When you play indoors it’s a controlled environment,” Schenk said. “When you hit the ball you can isolate the factors that affect the ball. There are much more factors outside like a little bit of wind. You have to be much more careful, You get used to it though. It just takes a little bit.”
Wright said the team practiced outside all week, so being outdoors wasn’t too big of a factor. For Wright, it simply came down to a few key moments in each of the matches.
“We practiced outside all week and I thought we looked good out there,” he said. “There were a lot of close matches out there. We just came up short.”
-samabry@cc.usu.edu