Tennis bounces back from early loss at tourney
The men’s tennis team had a rough start at the UNLV invitational last Friday when they lost to New Mexico State 5-2. But the team was able to shake it off and pull together for two wins against Idaho State and Nevada to place fifth overall at the invitational.
Hungsoon Park and Jonah Nelson were the only Aggies to get wins against New Mexico. Park defeated his opponent Danilo Zivanovic 7-6, 6-1 at number one singles for his third consecutive singles win. Nelson picked up his fifth singles win this season defeating NMS’s Luis Avila 6-4, 6-2 at the number five singles position.
The other Aggies were not quite equal to their competition. USU was unable to get another victory in singles play and fell to New Mexico 5-2. Because the Aggies lost they continued their play against the loser of the Idaho State and Texas-Arlington match.
Idaho lost its match and faced USU on Saturday. Although the Aggies had come home without the victory last time they faced Idaho, they weren’t worried.
“Everybody was able to bounce back and play well,” said Aggie senior Jason Trask. “We had lost to Idaho before, but knew we could win. It was a tight, close match … a well-fought match.”
The team’s confidence carried it through to a win. For only the second time this season, the Aggies got the doubles point and had an early lead going into singles play.
Park once again led the Aggies with his fourth consecutive win at the number one singles position, defeating ISU’s Hestian Stoica 6-3, 6-2.
Trask was able to get back on the winning side by defeating Idaho’s Chris Sadek 6-0, 6-2 and improving to 4-1 at the number three spot. Roshan Rasekhi pulled out a win as well, defeating Butch Stavridis 6-2, 2-1 when Stavridis retired in the second set.
Nelson was among the victors as well, with a straight set win against Ivan Moferdin 6-2,6-2. These wins led the Aggies to a 4-2 victory over Idaho.
The team was confident once again as they faced Nevada on Sunday. This was a team they had seen before as well, but last time the Aggies were able to come out on top.
“[We] came out and it was no big deal,” Rasekhi said. “We beat [these] guys before, but they played well and fought hard. We got worried we would lose this one … [but] we decided we were just going to dig this one out.”
For the second consecutive match, USU was able to get the doubles point and head into singles play with the lead.
Park’s winning streak ended as he fell to Nevada’s Adam Jooste 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Aggie Ryan Bair was also unable to come up with a victory at the number six singles position, falling to UNR’s Rafal Stupka 7-6, 6-2.
The other USU players dominated their singles play. Rasekhi, Trask, Nelson and Hannes Schenk were able to defeat their respective opponents for a 5-2 victory over the Wolf Pack.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu