Men sweep weekend, win sixth straight
Utah State’s Men’s Tennis team won both of its two home matches this weekend in Logan, extending their current winning streak to five matches.
They got things started things off on the right foot Friday night, defeating the Mesa State Mavericks in shutout fashion. They swept doubles play with wins from all three duos. Sven Poslusny and Bryan Marchant opened with a decisive 8-1 win over Jaco Gerbrands and Joseph Aragon. The Aggies are undefeated this year when Poslusny and Marchant win their opening match.
Fredrik Peterson and Alex Thatcher followed with a narrow 8-6 win, while Jakob Asplund and Nikita Ryaschenko beat Jonathan Casson and Issac Brown, 8-4, to stay undefeated as a team on the year at 4-0. USU went up 1-0 early and kept things rolling right into singles competition.
In singles, the Aggies dominated entirely. The men handled the Mavericks by taking all six singles matches in straight sets. Poslusny snagged another win over Gerbrands in two sets, 6-2, 6-1. Asplund won easily in two sets 6-1, 6-3, in the No. 2 singles spot, while Peterson topped Hernandez 6-2, 6-1 in the No.3 pairing. Marchant won his match 6-2, 6-0. Cache Valley Native Alex Thatcher ousted Isaac Brown 6-2, 6-1, and Ryaschenko also claimed a victory, winning 6-4, 6-2 over Casson. Friday’s win was USU’s first shutout victory on the year and second consecutive 7-0 win over Mesa State overall.
The Aggies stayed at home on Saturday and got another victory to improve to 5-2 on the year as a team, and remain undefeated at home at 2-0. Saturday’s battle against the Montana State Bobcats was much closer and a lot more heated than their previous victory.
USU head coach Christian Wright said, “MSU is tough year-in and year-out. Them and Sacramento State are always at the top of the Big Sky.”
Wright was happy with the way his men played as a whole on Saturday.
“It was a good test. In several matches MSU went up quick but our depth came through.”
The Aggies opened play against MSU with three wins in doubles competition. Poslusny and Marchant got another win, this time over Bobcats Fletcher Keyes and Pawel Turzanski, 8-6. Thatcher and Peterson won over Alberto Fuentes and Prithiv Sivasubramanium, 8-1. In No. 3, Asplund and Ryaschenko extended their season mark to 5-0 with their victory over Alexander Jewett and teammate Campos Contreras, 8-3.
Winning the doubles point was critical for USU as they went into several tough matches in singles play. Poslusny let MSU’s Turzanski get out to an early lead in the first set of the No. 1 singles pairing, but stormed back and won in two sets, 6-3, 6-1.
Wright said, “Sven played great. He had to play a kid who hits big and plays at a different tempo.”
Asplund lost to Keyes 6-3, 6-4, but put up a great fight. Peterson lost to Fuentes 6-3, 6-4. Marchant got a much-needed win at No. 4 with his two set 6-3, 6-3 victory.
“It’s great to see Bryan getting his confidence back up,” Wright said of Marchant.
After Marchant’s win, the Aggies were atop the Bobcats, 3-2. Alex Thatcher controlled his match in the No. 5 spot over Jewett, gaining a 6-2, 6-3 victory and sealing the victory for USU. Ryashchenko came out on top in his three-set match with Sivasubramanium. Ryashchenko won the opening set 6-3 and Sivasubramanium took the next by the same score. The third set was an epic battle going deep into a tiebreaker, which Ryashchenko won 10-7.
“I‘ll take it! Different people are always stepping up,” Wright said of the wins.
The men head to Las Vegas next week to take on UNLV, as well as UC Riverside.
“UNLV is always tough. Same with Riverside,” Wright said.
– bret.clapier@aggiemail.usu.edu