Men’s tennis sweeps weekend in Montana

Utah State men’s tennis team swept the Montana double-header this weekend, beating Montana State 4-3 and Montana State-Billings 7-0.

“We had some great individual performances with Marcus (Fritz) and Sebastian (Schneider) leading the charge,” said USU head coach Clancy Shields. “We need to start hitting on all cylinders and have great team performances if we want to have success in the future.”

Utah State started the double-header off against Montana State on Sunday morning.

The Aggies went down early against the Bobcats after losing the early doubles points. Marcus Fritz won his match 6-4, 6-0 to tie it up at 1-1. Utah State lost the next two points to go down 3-1.

The Aggies showed the same resiliency that they’ve had all year, winning the next three matches to seal the win. Dennis Baumgartner won his match in three sets 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, while Jaime Barajas came up big in the clutch again, as he tied the match 3-3 with a 6-1, 6-4 win.

Sebastian Schneider clinched the win for the Aggies with a 6-1, 6-4 win.

Later that day, the Aggies showed Montana State-Billings that resiliency with a 7-0 rout of the Yellowjackets.

Utah State won the doubles point 2-0 after wins by Jack Swindells and Fritz 6-1 and Matt Sweet and Andrew Nakajima 6-2. Swindells won the first singles match of the day 6-1, 6-1.

Meanwhile, Tomas Cosmai won his match in straight sets 6-1, 6-1. Sweet gave the Aggies their clinching point, winning his match 6-1, 6-2. Fritz won his singles match 6-3, 6-2, while Nakajima won his 6-2, 6-2.

Utah State’s next match is March 7 at Loyola Marymount.

— joebaraiolo@gmail.com

Twitter: @joefish_2