Nevada escapes with a win over USU men’s tennis
Playing down most of the match, the Utah State men’s tennis team was unable to sustain a charge through singles, suffering a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the University of Nevada (2-10).
“It’s tough to swallow, those 4-3s, but we’ve been on the other end of them, too,” said Aggie Jordan Butler. “We know how it is to win them, but it’s tough when you lose 4-3.”
The Aggies (4-10) fell behind early Saturday at the Sports Academy and Racquet Club in North Logan, picking up only one doubles victory and dropping the doubles point.
Butler and Jonah Nelson, who played for the first time in four matches, defeated Nevada’s No. 1 duo of Adam Jooste and Daniel Ericsson, 8-6, for the lone Aggie win.
In the other two matches, Aggies Brandon Butler and Jason Trask lost 8-6 to McClure Wallace and Eric Roslansky, and the Wolf Pack’s Rudolf Leuschner and Brandon Sieh topped Hannes Schenk and Ryan Bair, 9-7.
Moving on to doubles, Utah State dropped the No. 1 match as Jooste was able to make a comeback and defeat Schenk, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
For Schenk, it was his first home match and only his fourth overall. He missed the first 10 matches of the season waiting to be deemed eligible by the NCAA.
“He’s been doing a good job,” said Aggie Head Coach Chris Wright. “He’s just needing some match experience and conditioning. He’s a talented player and he’s going to be good.”
In the No. 2 match, Trask quickly fell behind a set, but was able to battle back and edge Leuschner in the second set. With the set tied 4-4, Trask not only broke Leuschner’s serve, but his game.
Trask didn’t drop a game the remainder of the match, winning 1-6, 6-4, 6-0.
“I think a lot of it was [Leuschner] was playing so well because he had his confidence up so high and I was missing a lot, so that confidence builds really quickly,” Trask said. “In the second set I just played a lot smarter, running down balls like I usually do. He just looked like he ran out of gas in the third, mentally and physically.”
In the rest of singles, Utah State was able to pick up wins at No. 4 and No. 5, as Jordan defeated Ericsson, 6-4, 6-3, and Andrew Marsh won 7-5, 6-4 against Wallace, but the Aggies were edged in three sets in the other two matches.
At No. 3, Brandon fell to Milos Popovic, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 and in the final match, Daniel Abeaboeru slipped by Bair.
“It’s going to drive me crazy for the next couple of days because we really could have gone back and looked at a number of matches that we could have got,” Wright said.
Despite the loss, Wright said he was happy with the effort put forth by the team.
“I’m really proud of the way that everybody fought, especially in the last match that was on,” he said. “[Bair] gave us a chance to get it still. Sometimes it doesn’t bounce your way, but I’m proud of the effort, especially going on to singles.”
Saturday’s match was the fourth for Utah State in week as the Aggies were coming off a three-match road trip in California.
On the trip, the Aggies were without Nelson, who sat out due to an ankle injury, but Schenk competed in his first matches.
Against Saint Mary’s on March 8, Bair picked up the only Aggie win in a 6-1 loss.
Utah State then rebounded March 10 with a 4-3 win over Creighton. Schenk picked up his first victory and both Trask and Bair won in singles.
In USU’s second Big West Conference match, Cal Poly swept the Aggies on March 11.
“We had some chances,” Wright said. “Some of the scores I’m not thrilled with, but to watch the points and see how we were losing them, it was just mainly our unforced errors.”
He said the team had difficulty adjusting to playing at a lower elevation and wasn’t executing well at times.
“We were leaving a lot of balls in the net,” Wright said. “We made some adjustments and worked at it, but it just wasn’t good enough.”
The Aggies will now have over a week off before returning to action next Wednesday against Montana at the Sports Academy.
–slbk5@cc.usu.edu