Aggies men’s tennis team beat the Bengals 5-2

LOGAN — The Utah State University’s men’s tennis team beat Idaho State University 5-2 Friday afternoon.  

“I knew it was going to be a battle,” said head coach Aaron Paajanen.  

The Aggies started off strong by stealing the doubles match point.  

In the first match, Aggies Stijn Paardekooper and Nuno Pinheiro beat Bengals Valentino De Pellegrin and Victor Sklenka, 7-6. This match was third in its order of finish.  

For the second match, Aggies Stefan Vedovelli and Bodin Zarkovic stomped Bengals Ege Cankus and Hiroki Fujita, 6-2. This was first in its order of finish.  

For the final match of doubles, Aggies David Martirosian and Sergi Micó Fenollar kept it close but eventually fell to Bengals Andreas Kramer and Patrick Kristensen, 7-6.  

The Aggies lead in the overall score 1-0 going into the singles matches.  

In the first singles match, Zarkovic beat Pellegrin in three sets, winning the first and the third, 6-2 and 6-2. The order of finish was third for this match, landing the fourth overall point for the Aggies.  

In the second match, Sklenka kept it close to Paardekooper but couldn’t pull through. The Aggie beat the Bengal in three matches with winning scores of 7-6 and 6-4. The order of finish was fourth and contributed to the fifth overall point in favor of the Aggies.  

Fenollar swept Kramer in the third match, 7-5 and 6-4. This was the second finish in singles matches and contributed to the third overall point for the Aggies.  

For the fourth match, Pinheiro also helped the Aggies with a sweep over Kristensen, 7-5 and 6-3. This was the first singles match to finish and contributed to the Aggies second overall point.  

After the Aggies had already won with an overall score of 5-0, the fifth match took place between Vedovelli and Fujita. The Bengals received their first point after this match with Fujita winning in two sets, 6-4 and 6-1. This was the fifth order of finish and contributed to the Bengals’ first point of the day.  

Finally, in the sixth match, Aggie Philipp Rein and Bengal Wikus Robbertse battled it out. Robbertse stole the first set at 6-2. This didn’t stop Rein working himself back into the match in which he won the second set, 6-4. It came down to a sudden death match with Robbertse stealing the final set, 10-8.  

“It’s important to for us to highlight what we have been doing that’s been successful and try to keep doing that,” Paajanen said.  

The Aggies will travel south to play against the University of Texas at San Antonio on March 1.