Men’s tennis plays last preseason tourney
A slew of wins and losses was the end result of the five-day Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Tournament for the men’s tennis team, played last weekend in Las Vegas, Nev.
The Aggies competed in both singles and doubles play against 15 other teams from around the Western region, including in-state rivals Brigham Young University and the University of Utah, and conference rivals Boise State and New Mexico State.
Although the Aggies failed to reach the top four tier that would have advanced them to the ITA Indoor Nationals in early November, the Aggies played well and hung tough with the Goliath’s of the tournament.
“I’m pleased with the team,” Head Coach Christian Wright said. “We went out there and competed.”
On the first day of action, three Aggies clinched first round victories in singles.
Not surprisingly, one of them was freshman standout Jakob Asplund.
Asplund came into the tournament after a successful run at the Utah Invitational Tournament the week before, where he upset No. 6 seed Sascha Kiehne of Weber State in straight sets. The ITA tournament would put him into a similar situation, being matched up with the No. 24 seed out of 128 players in the first round, Jakub Dybala of Montana State University.
The two played a tight match that ended up going down to the wire. But when all was said and done, it was Asplund who came out on top, upsetting Dybala 7-5, 7-6.
Asplund didn’t fare so well in his second round loss to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas’ David Campbell, but bounced back to win two straight matches in the consolation bracket, defeating Varun Gunaseeian of Denver University 6-2, 6-2, and UNLV’s Brian Miller, 6-1, 6-1. Asplund’s run hit a speed bump in the fourth round, however, as he fell in a three-set battle to Stefan McKinney of New Mexico State, 7-6, 3-6, 0-6.
Senior Mike Banks and sophomore Oscar Ericsson were the other victors from day one. Banks handled John Taylor of Utah, 6-1, 7-5, before falling to BYU’s Thomas Shubert 1-6, 3-6. Shubert, who faced Asplund at the Utah Invitational Tournament, was seeded No. 30.
Ericsson, who was also coming off a respectable showing at the UIT, won a three-set thriller over Tim Huynh of the University of Idaho, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, before falling in the second round to Boise State’s Piotr Dilaj, 3-6, 2-6.
Despite dropping their first round singles matches, three more Aggies chalked up victories as doubles action heated up on day two.
Senior Fernando Gallegos and sophomore Alex Thatcher partnered up to bring down Tyler Clonts and A.J Young of BYU, 8-4, while seniors Jonas Tyden and Mike Banks beat Tanner Svoboda and Alex VanDershelden of Portland State, 8-5.
On day three, it was more Asplund and Ericsson.
The Swedish duo overpowered a mentally and physically tough Renzo Lau and Jeffery Morys of Northern Arizona University, 9-7, in the third round of consolation doubles. Round four proved to go down a bit easier as the pair chalked up another win, this time over Mikolaj Brokowski and Raydner Rames of the University of Montana.
With the 8-5 win over Montana behind them, Asplund and Ericsson faced familiar foes Sascha Kiehne and Fabio Mancarella of Weber State in the quarterfinals. But the No. 11-seeded Weber combo proved to be too much for the Aggies this time, as Asplund and Ericsson fell out of consolation contention in a 4-8 loss.
The elimination was USU’s last tournament of the preseason. The Aggies will continue to practice in preparation for January when the regular season takes center stage.
And through the ups and downs of this short-lived preseason, there is one thing Wright continues to cite: progress.
“We’ve seen a lot of improvement over the last several weeks,” Wright said. “I’m excited about our team and about our chances this coming season.”
-jackson.olsen@aggiemail.usu.edu