Women’s tennis defeats Idaho State, falls to Arizona for first loss of season

Women’s tennis suffered their first loss of the season Sunday to Arizona 5-2 just days after close 4-3 home win over Idaho State.

Against Idaho State (0-1), sophomore Sophia Haleas, in her first singles match of the year, clinched the Aggie victory with her 6-2, 6-1 singles victory over Megan Poe.

“It felt great. I loved playing today, and it felt great to win,” Haleas said of her win. “I worked really hard to show the results.”

The Aggies (2-1)  dropped the doubles point, but won four of the six singles matches. Sasha Pisareva and Sabrina Demerath each lost just one game in their matches, posting identical scores of 6-1, 6-0. Hannah Jones prevailed in a tiebreaker in her first set and dominated the second set to win her match 7-6, 6-2

Rhoda Tanui and Alexandra Taylor lost their matches. Tanui won her first set 6-3 but lost a tiebreaker in the second set to lost 7-6 and then lost the final set 1-6. Taylor’s 4-6, 2-6 loss had no bearing in the final result as USU had already clinched the win.

“Idaho State came in and played very well against us,” said Aggie head coach Sean McInerney. “We’re still getting some people playing up to a level that we need them to play at, but I was happy with how we found a way to win. A win is a win in college. So, we’ll take that.”

Singles matches carried the day for the Aggies against ISU, but it was their downfall against Arizona (3-0).

Utah State started off strong against Arizona, winning the doubles point with Jones and Maggie O’Meara winning 6-1 and Taylor and Haleas winning 7-5. But the team lost the first four singles matches played and won just one of the six matches.

“In singles, we played the style we need to play, but were just unable to maintain the level of consistency that we need at this level,” McInerney said. “We will keep working hard and fix that aspect of the game.”

Demerath notched the only win for the Aggies. She lost her first set 6-7 but triumphed in the next two 6-4 and 13-11.

Sasha Pisareva lost both of her sets 4-6, Lucy Octave lost 2-6, 3-6 and O’Meara lost by the flipped score of 3-6, 2-6. Jones put up a fight in her first set, losing 4-6, but failed to win a game in the next, falling 0-6. With the contest already clinched for Arizona, Haleas played out her full match, losing 3-6, 4-6, 11-9.

The Aggies remain unbeaten at home, but will travel to Michigan to play four teams in three days over the weekend.