Men’s tennis takes sixth at UNLV invitational
Familiar opponents awaited the Utah State men’s tennis team when it traveled to Las Vegas to compete in the UNLV Invitational Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The Aggies went 1-2 over the weekend — against three teams they play on a regular basis — as they fell to Pacific Friday in the tournament’s opening round, beat Idaho State Saturday in consolation play, before dropping their final match to Weber State on Sunday.
Pacific went on to win the tournament, topping UNLV in the championship match, while New Mexico State defeated Nevada for third place. Weber State finished fifth, USU sixth, and ISU seventh. USU is now 2-6 on the season.
WSU 4, USU 3
Heading into its match against the Wildcats, the Aggies were a whopping 8-1 the last two seasons after capturing the doubles point.
Unfortunately for Utah State, that trend did not continue in its 4-3 heartbreaker to Weber State Sunday in the consolation championship game.
The Wildcats captured four of the six singles matches to beat a short-handed Aggie squad, in the first of three meetings between the two teams this season.
USU was without the services of No. 2 singles player Jason Trask, who has been battling what USU Head Coach Chris Wright said is the flu.
“Because of the nature of his game, and how much effort he has to put out there, we knew as soon as he said he wasn’t feeling good, we weren’t going to be able to put him out there,” he said.
Nevertheless, USU was a couple of points away from pulling out the match, before Wildcat Zach Rideout outlasted Jacob Jensen 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in No. 4 singles, in what turned out to be the decisive match.
Freshman Andrew Marsh improved to 4-2 on the season, as he defeated Andrew Corlett, 6-3, 6-3 in No. 5, while Ryan Bair beat Daniel Abeaboeru in No. 6 for USU’s other singles victory.
Although he was quick not to blame the loss on fatigue, Wright said it did play a key factor in the match. Unlike the Aggies, the Wildcats did not play a match on Saturday. WSU, which dropped its opening match to Nevada, was without an opponent because UNLV had a first-round bye.
“I just think it was a matter of us not being as fresh,” Wright said. “We were still fighting, but our legs were not quite there.”
USU 6, ISU 1
Just over a week removed from dropping a 5-2 decision to ISU in Pocatello, Idaho, Utah State was able to get its revenge, surging past the Bengals 6-1 Saturday.
“I think that’s out best showing [of the season] collectively, when talking about going out there and just battling point-for-point,” Wright said.
Heading into the match, Wright decided to flip-flop Jordan and Brandon Butler at the No. 3 and 4 singles positions, moving Brandon to No. 3 and Jordan to No. 4.
It paid off as Brandon edged Butch Stavridis, 7-6, 6-3, while Jordan was victorious over Pablo Garces, 6-2, 7-5.
“A lot of it was just a matchup thing,” Wright said. “Jordan has played the one guy [Stavridis] three or four times, so we just decided to mix it up.”
In other singles action, Trask defeated Hestian Stoica, 6-2, 6-2 in the No. 2 spot. Jacob Jensen and Marsh picked up USU’s other two singles victories, with Jensen beating Jemre Okoh, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, and Marsh beating Chris Sadek, 6-3, 6-3.
USU won two of the three doubles matches to win the doubles point.
Pacific 7, USU 0
The Tigers showed the Aggies why they have played for the Big West Conference championship the past two seasons as UOP blanked USU 7-0 Friday.
“I was very impressed with the Tigers. They played very well,” Wright said. “They aren’t one of the top teams in the conference for no reason.”
Despite being swept, Wright said he was happy with the way the team competed, especially in its first outdoor match of the year. However, the Aggies “just didn’t convert on key point opportunities,” he said.
One Aggie who was able to convert in several big-point situations was Brandon. Nevertheless, UOP’s Vincent Kubler was able to capture the key points in the third-set tiebreaker as Kubler squeaked past Brandon, 5-7, 6-1, 7-6.
With the loss, the Aggies fell to 0-3 against the Tigers over the last two years.
–jasonwturner@cc.usu.edu