Men’s tennis tops Weber State
In what has become an up and down week for USU tennis, the Aggie men ended their four-match losing streak Wednesday with a 5-2 win at Weber State while the Aggie women dropped to 7-12 on the year with a shut out loss on the road Thursday at the hands of Boise State.
On the men’s side, the Aggies completed a home and road sweep of the Wildcats this year, but did so against more resistance than in the two teams’ first meeting which the Aggies won 7-0.
“I gotta give [Weber State] credit. They played better than they did when they came to Logan,” head coach Christian Wright said about Weber’s performance. “You would expect for them to make improvement after everybody has played a number of matches.”
After taking the doubles point two matches to one, the Aggies started slowly in the singles competition, losing at the No.’s 1 and 2 spots.
“In doubles we did a good job,” Wright said. “We played pretty well as a team. Individually we didn’t do very well at a couple spots.”
At the No. 1 spot, sophomore Johannes Zelle split the first two sets, 4-6, 6-1, against Weber State’s Sascha Kiehne before falling in a close third set, 5-7.
Aggie senior Joao Pinho had a rough outing at the No. 2 spot against Weber State’s Fabio Mancarella, losing quickly, 2-6, 2-6.
“[Joao] was definitely off,” Wright said. “Johannes wasn’t playing his best, but he battled really hard.”
From the No. 3 spot on down, however, it was relatively smooth sailing for the Aggies.
Playing in what looks to be his new permanent spot in the lineup, No. 3 junior Dantley Young had a good first set against Weber State’s Mathis Saberon before pulling out the straight-set victory, 6-3, 7-5.
At the No. 4 spot, freshman Bryan Marchant had the closest match of the afternoon, defeating Weber State’s Zach Rideout, 7-5, 7-6.
Having an easier time of it, sophomore Jonas Tyden won at the No. 5 spot against Weber State’s Chris Williams, 6-2, 6-1. At the No. 6 spot for the Aggies, freshman Michael Banks also won his match against Weber State’s Trevor Thompson, 6-3, 6-4.
On the women’s side, however, the Aggies faced a rather tall order in the form of a Boise State team ranked 63rd in the country and riding a 10 match winning streak.
The afternoon got off to a rocky start with the Aggie women managing to win a total of only five games between three doubles matches. If things seemed bad at that point, it only got worse in singles competition.
At the No. 1 spot, senior Lindsey Bennion lost in straight sets, 2-6, 0-6, to Boise State’s Hadley MacFarlane. At the No. 2 spot, senior Jill Smith was dealt a similar fate, losing to Boise State’s Megan Biorkman, 2-6, 3-6.
The only Aggie to win a set Thursday afternoon was Courtney Anderson at the No. 3 spot. She was able to split the first two sets with Boise State’s Tatiana Ganzha, 3-6, 6-1, before losing in the third, 3-6.
At the No. 4 spot, freshman Dee Dee Nelson failed to win a game in her match against Boise State’s Tiffany Coll, losing 0-6, 0-6.
At the No. 5 spot, senior Andrea Barker had a slightly better match, all things considered. She lost to Boise State’s Alanah Carroll, 4-6, 3-6.
Rounding out the competition for the Aggies, junior Lauren Monson lost to Boise State’s Carolyn Berry, 1-6, 0-6.
The Aggie women will play again Friday morning against the University of Idaho and then Saturday morning against the University of Nevada-Reno. Both matches will be in Boise.
The men will have their final home match of the year Monday against Idaho State at 1:30 p.m. Conference championships for the men and women are scheduled for April 20-23 at Boise State University.
-jhislop@cc.usu.edu