Teams pick up wins
The USU men’s and women’s tennis teams both recorded shut-out victories this week – the women winning on the road at Idaho State on Tuesday and the men winning at home against Weber State on Wednesday.
In the men’s match, USU continued its home unbeaten streak, handling the Wildcats in easy fashion without losing a set in singles or doubles play.
In singles action, USU junior J.J. Netto got his first win of the season, defeating WSU’s Zach Rideout, 6-3, 6-4.
At the No. 1 spot, sophomore Johannes Zelle won the first set of his match with Weber State’s Sascha Kiehne before Kiehne retired. At the No. 2 spot, senior Joao Pinho defeated Fabio Mancarella 6-3, 6-3.
At the No. 4 spot for the Aggies was junior Dantley Young. Young won the first set of his match with Mathis Saberon in a tiebreaker before narrowly winning the second set, 7-5.
At USU’s No. 5 spot, freshman Bryan Marchant defeated his opponent, Chris Williams, 6-3, 6-0, while the No. 6 spot, Jonas Tyden won his match 7-5, 6-3, over Trevor Thompson.
In the women’s match, the Aggies got off to a bit of a slower start, winning two out of three in doubles. In singles, it was a complete sweep with only two of the six matches going the full three sets.
At the No. 1 spot for the Aggies was senior Lindsey Bennion who defeated ISU’s Denise Cockrell, 6-4, 2-6, 6-0. At the No. 2 spot, senior Jill Smith won the first set of her match with ISU’s Armine Sarkavagyan in a tie-breaker, 7-6 (8-6), before finishing her off in the second set, 6-2.
Aggie sophomore Courtney Anderson improved her singles record to 6-2 this season with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Lauren Pascoe. At the No. 4 spot for the Aggies was freshman Dee Dee Nelson who won her match with ISU’s Katherine Zigars, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Playing at the No.5 spot was senior Andrea Baker, who defeated Valerie Espinoza in a second set tiebreaker, 6-2, 7-6(7-2).
Rounding out the singles action for the Aggie women was junior Lauren Monson at the No. 6 spot. Monson defeated ISU’s Anastasia Sazykina, 6-4, 6-4.
The Aggie women improve to 3-5 on the year with all of their matches thus far being on the road. They will now prepare for their first home match against Weber State Feb. 16 at 1 p.m.
The men will play another home match Friday at 1 p.m. against the University of Nevada. The Wolf Pack are 1-3 this season and are coming off their first win of the year; a 4-3 victory over Gonzaga.
-jhislop@cc.usu.edu