USU Tennis wins 5-2
The USU women’s tennis team successfully defended its home turf for the last time this year as it defeated the Idaho State Bengals 5-2 in the Aggies’ final home match of the season Tuesday afternoon at the Sports Academy.
The Aggies got off to a good start by claiming the doubles point with a sweep of all three doubles matches.
At the No. 1 doubles spot for the Aggies, the team of seniors Andrea Barker and Lindsey Bennion won 8-4 in their match against ISU’s Denise Cockrell and Lauren Pascoe.
At the No. 2 spot, junior Lauren Monson and senior Jill Smith defeated ISU’s tandem of Katherine Zigars and Valerie Espinosa, 8-4.
The No. 3 team of sophomore Courtney Anderson and freshman Dee Dee Nelson jumped out to a 6-1 lead before finishing off ISU’s Stephanie Roldan and Courtney Bennion, 8-3.
In singles competition things got a bit tougher for the Aggies. Though they won four of the six singles matches, the Aggies lost at the numbers 1 and 5 spots and had two matches go the full three sets.
“It’s always a battle,” head coach Christian Wright said. “They posed some challenges in a few spots where they hit off-pace and got a lot of balls in play.”
At the No. 1 spot for the Aggies, Bennion lost her first set against Cockrell in a tie-breaker before getting down 4-1 in the second set. Bennion then mounted a comeback, winning the next four games in a row and nearly leveling the match.
Her comeback fell short, however, as Cockrell relied on her pace and some hard-to-reach angles to hold on for a 6-4 victory in the second set.
“I made a little bit of a comeback,” Bennion said. “I started hitting with more top spin, but she kinda’ got back and got some lucky shots.”
The longest match of the afternoon came at the No. 2 spot where Smith took three sets in her final home match to defeat Pascoe, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
“In the third set I didn’t know the team score,” Smith said. “I made myself believe that I was the deciding match. That helped me get through the third set.”
At the No. 3 spot, Anderson cruised to her team high 14th win of the season by beating ISU’s Armine Sarkavagyan, 6-1, 6-2. Nelson was able to win at the No. 4 spot with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Espinosa.
At the No. 5 spot, Barker went the distance before falling just short in her final home match. After winning a first set tie-breaker and losing the second set, 5-7, Barker lost the third set 12-10.
At the No. 6 spot, Monson recorded the most lop-sided win for the Aggies, winning both sets 6-1 over Roldan.
For USU’s three seniors, all of whom are nearing the end of four years at USU, Tuesday’s match was the culmination of a transitional period with USU moving into the Western Athletic Conference.
“They have done great things for our program,” Wright said. “They’ve helped us make a name for ourselves around the area which helps us to attract other good players down the road.”
The women will be in action again Thursday as both the men and women travel to Boise to take on the Boise State Broncos.
The men will also be in action Wednesday as they head to Ogden to take on Weber State.
-jhislop@cc.usu.edu
USU’s Dee-Dee Nelson returns the ball during her singles match against Idaho State Tuesday in Logan.