Ags strong in weekend matches
Utah State women’s tennis posted back-to-back wins against Dixie State and Cal State Bakersfield over the weekend. The wins served as the Aggies’ second and third consecutive victories, and upped their season record to 6-9. The first of the weekend’s two matches took place on Friday against Dixie State College, where the Aggies cruised to a 7-0 victory over the Rebels. The Aggies opened up the match by sweeping all three doubles pairings. Utah State’s No. 1 doubles team of Bridgette Strickland and Brianna Harris defeated Dixie State’s Ashley Lafeen and Brittny Roemer 8-2. Britney Watts and Hailey Swenson notched an 8-0 Aggie victory over Rebecca Wright and Annie Salmon of Dixie State in the No. 2 doubles match-up. USU freshman Taylor Perry and Jennifer Johnson finished off the sweep of doubles with an 8-6 win over Lydia Hays and Ashley Johnson in No. 3 doubles. “I thought the energy going out in doubles was really good, and I felt like they sustained it through the singles,” Utah State head coach Christian Wright said. The Aggies did just that, using that energy to roll to straight-set victories in all six of the singles pairings. Dominating efforts by both Strickland and Perry highlighted Utah State’s singles play. Strickland’s victory came in straight sets 6-0, 6-0 over Dixie State’s Annie Salmon in No. 3 singles. Perry won by the same result of 6-0, 6-0 over Brittny Roemer in the No. 5 singles match-up. The second of the two weekend matches for Utah State came Saturday against Cal State Bakersfield, where the Aggie women won 6-1 over the Roadrunners. Utah State claimed the doubles point over Bakersfield with victories of 8-2 in both the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles match-ups. The Roadrunners’ No. 1 doubles team of Kati Lynott and Kaydee Graham avoided the sweep in doubles with their 8-2 victory over Utah State’s Strickland and Harris in No. 1 doubles.
In singles play, two Aggies put forth dominating efforts, while two others finished their matches in more dramatic fashion.
Utah State’s Swenson defeated Ashley Thorneycroft 6-1, 6-0 in No. 2 singles, while Johnson posted a 6-0, 6-0 win in No. 6 singles over Bakersfield’s Leslie Begley.
Strickland won the first set of the No. 3 singles match-up, 6-3, over the Roadrunner’s Graham and appeared to be comfortably on her way to a straight-set victory midway through the second set of the match. Graham battled back to force a tiebreaker in the second set, where she then fell behind again 6-2 in the tiebreak. Graham came back once again to bring the tiebreaker to a 6-6 tie before Strickland took control one last time to win the tiebreak, 9-7, and the second set to seal the win in No. 3 singles.
Harris, a sophomore for the Aggies, capped off the Aggies’ team victory by taking the No. 1 singles pairing with a furious comeback win. After dropping the first set 6-3 to Bakersfield’s Lynott, Harris fell behind 0-5 in the second set before staging her comeback.
“I started playing a smarter game against her style,” Harris said. “I just changed the strategy, I guess.”
Harris won the next six games to take a 6-5 lead over Lynott before dropping the next game to send the second set to a tiebreaker. With a crowd of several dozen behind her, Harris won the tiebreaker to claim the second set.
Harris said, “I think (Lynott) was intimidated by the crowd a lot. Each point they’d go crazy and it kept me going.”
Harris capped off the comeback effort by winning the third set, 6-4. The Aggies have now won four of their last five matches since breaking a seven-match losing streak earlier this season. The Aggies will take the court again Tuesday at home against Idaho State. The Aggies won their last meeting with the Bengals 6-1 in Pocatello, Idaho, earlier this season.-matt.sonn@aggiemail.usu.edu