Season sweep thwarted by Wildcats
The last time the Utah State University women’s tennis team played, it beat Weber State University for the first time in its history.
USU was unable to duplicate the feat Wednesday in Ogden.
On their home courts the Wildcats pulled out a 4-3 victory by winning the doubles point and three singles points.
“The ball didn’t bounce a few times our way and it may have hurt us a little bit not playing for a little while,” Aggie coach Chris Wright said. “I wouldn’t say we were real sharp, but we didn’t play bad.”
WSU started off the match by taking two of the three doubles matches to earn the point.
Wildcats Dana DeLancey and Therina Steenkamp defeated Sarah Lowe and Caroline Pollock, 8-4, while Aggies Haley Hawkins and Carolyn Larsen defeated Briana Beauchene and Tara Rosenzweig 9-7.
The No. 3 doubles went to a tiebreaker, with Weber’s Chelsee Drews and Tiffany Smith earning Weber the doubles point with a 9-8 win over Jocee Bergeson and Amy Thatcher.
“After losing the doubles point, which was unfortunate, we put ourselves back into the match,” Wright said. “I still felt good going into the singles we were going to be able to get it.”
Needing to win four-of-six matches to get the victory, the Aggies went ahead early in singles play.
Lowe, Bergeson, Pollock and Hawkins all won their first sets with both Bergeson and Hawkins winning their matches in straight sets.
Hawkins defeated Drews, 6-3, 6-1, and Bergeson won over DeLancey, 6-3, 6-3.
Utah State had a moment of concern in Larsen’s first set when she went down with a twisted ankle.
“I was running for the ball and my legs got twisted,” Larsen said.
She said her knee locked and her ankle rolled, but after having the ankle wrapped by a trainer she returned to play.
Assistant coach Jevin West said when a player is injured there is a two-minute diagnosis period and a three-minute treatment period.
“The trainer didn’t know [about the time limit] so there was a little delay,” he said. “It was a fast wrap job.”
Larsen lost her match to Rosenzweig, 6-0, 6-4.
Following the match, Larsen said her ankle was fine.
In No. 4 singles, Shelly Ferguson lost her first set, 3-6, but was able to rally. She came back, winning the final two sets, 6-2, 6-1, to defeat Smith.
Ferguson said she was able to make the necessary adjustments following the first set.
“I just tried to move my feet really fast and I tried to get really low on every shot and that seemed to work a lot better,” she said. “The first set I was just a little bit nervous to start off and then she just seemed to get really frustrated.”
Lowe, after her early lead, fell to Steenkamp 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
With the match score tied 3-3, Pollock and Beauchene were the only players remaining on the court. They split the first two sets and in the final set, Beauchene came back from a 5-4 deficit to win 7-5, winning the match 4-6, 6-2,
7-5.
“[Pollock] played really hard and had a smart game plan,” Wright said. “[Beauchene] just came up with some good shots.”
Utah State is now 5-5 on the season.
“I’m proud of our girls. They fought,” Wright said. “There wasn’t anybody giving up out on the court. Our effort was good, [but] our execution was just a little bit off.”
Having had so recently played Weber, Ferguson said her previous victory gave her confidence while Bergeson said she was motivated to defeat the opponent who beat her in Logan.
“Going into the match I was thinking I did it once, I can do it again,” Ferguson said. “That definitely seemed to help a little bit.”
Bergeson said, “I really wanted to come out and play better. I was excited to have a second chance to play her this year.”
The Aggies were scheduled to play Friday and Saturday, but both their opponents, Portland State University and Northern Arizona University, canceled.
“I wish we were playing, NAU especially because one of my best friends plays on their team,” Bergeson said. “I had food poisoning the last time we played NAU and I couldn’t even play. I was really looking forward to playing them.”
The Aggies will return to action April 12 when they travel to Boise, Idaho, to play former conference rival Boise State University.