Men’s tennis falls to Air Force in opener
With four players gone from last year’s squad, the Utah State men’s tennis team lacked valuable match experience heading into its season-opener against the Air Force Academy.
Air Force was able to use this to its advantage as the Falcons upended the Aggies 6-1 for the second year in a row Friday at the Sports Academy and Racquet Club.
“We were a little impatient when we should have just changed up the pace a little bit, and then we passed on some shots when we should have attacked,” said USU Head Coach Chris Wright. “I saw a few first-match jitters throughout the entirety of the match.”
Like it did against AFA a year ago, USU dropped a couple of tightly-contested doubles matches to open the match, and were unable to recover.
AFA’s Shannon Buck and Justin Mancinelli sneaked by USU’s Jason Trask and Brandon Butler 9-7, in a match Wright said could have gone either way, while Falcons Martin Black and Chris Dong overcame a 6-3 deficit to beat Aggies Ryan Bair and Jacob Jensen 8-6.
The Falcons picked up the sweep as Eric Pittman and Tyler McClung defeated Jonah Nelson and Jordan Butler 8-2 in the No. 1 doubles match.
With momentum on its side, Wright said the Falcons were able to keep the Aggies out of rhythm in singles play to secure the victory.
Jordan agreed, and said Friday’s match will go a long way in helping the Aggies to become mentally tougher in future matches — especially after playing a consistent, cerebral team like the Falcons.
“We weren’t as match-tough as we’d like to be, but we’ll build from here,” he said.
One Aggie who was able to show some match toughness was Bair, the No. 6 singles player. Bair nearly came back from a 4-0 hole in the first set against Air Force’s Patrick Jackson, before falling 6-4.
Despite the pressure of being one set down, and being USU’s last chance to win an individual match, Bair rebounded to take the second set 6-3. With time running late, it was decided the two players would play a super tiebreaker (first one to 10 points, win by two in tiebreaker format) to decide the match. Bair pulled ahead, and won 10-6.
In other singles action, Nelson fell to Buck at No. 1 singles 6-1, 6-2, while Pittman beat Trask at the No. 2 spot 6-2, 6-3.
USU hung tough in the No. 3 and 4 singles matches, with McClung beating Jordan 6-2, 7-6 in No. 3, and Black outlasting Brandon 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in a match Wright said came down to match experience.
Jordan, who has been nursing a stress fracture in his arm, was nearly able to force a third set in his match by aggressively attacking the net and serving more efficiently.
Perhaps more important than his improved play, Jordan said his arm didn’t bother him during his matches.
“It felt good,” he said. “I was glad, because it felt a little sore yesterday, and so I didn’t serve as much as I wanted to yesterday. I’m just hoping it doesn’t hurt tomorrow.”
In Utah State’s other singles match, freshman Andrew Marsh fell to Falcon Tyler West 6-1, 6-2.
West is the brother of former Aggie player and last year’s assistant coach Jevin West.
The Aggies will return to action Thursday when they host the Montana State University Bobcats at 4 p.m. at the Sports Academy.
USU will look to avenge last year’s 5-2 road loss to the Bobcats.
“They’re a solid team,” Jordan said of Montana State. “We had a good match with them last year. They beat us at their home court, so we’re anxious to get back at them.”
–jasonwturner@cc.usu.edu