Tennis team beats Nevada
The USU men’s tennis team improved its record to 5-4 Friday afternoon with a 6-1 victory over the Nevada Wolf Pack.
With the win, the Aggies also increased their home winning streak to nine matches, dating back to last year’s 6-1 victory over Weber State.
Though the score from Friday’s match was lopsided, the individual matches were much closer.
“We play these guys almost every year and it’s always a close match,” Coach Christian Wright said. “We had a couple [matches] that could’ve gone either way. We had to really dig in there. Really good team effort.”
The match began with the Aggies splitting the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches, which caused the doubles point to be decided by a tie-breaker at the No. 1 spot.
In that match, Aggie sophomore Johannes Zelle and senior Joao Pinho edged out Nevada’s Guillaume Tonelli and Eldar Dzhafarov, 9-8(8-6).
At the No. 2 spot, junior Dantley Young and sophomore Jonas Tyden defeated Nevada’s Randy Reynolds and Tibor Penzes, 8-5.
The Aggies’ No. 3 doubles duo, freshmen Bryan Marchant and Mike Banks, lost to Rafal Stupka and Max Volger of Nevada, 8-4.
In singles action, all six matches ranged in variety from easy wins to three set grudge matches.
Pinho, the No. 2 singles for the Aggies, lost the first set in his match against Guillaume, but rebounded in the second and third sets to win the match, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2.
“I wasn’t moving very well in the first set,” said Pinho. “I started moving better and he started missing some [shots]. I think he got tired as well.”
Also winning in three sets was Young at the No. 4 spot. After dropping the first set to Stupka, Young turned things around in the second set and was able to roll in the third, winning 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.
“I had a lot of game points to start the match out and I just didn’t get ’em,” Young said. “I knew if I just kept fighting, there was no way this guy was going to beat me.”
According to Young, a turning point in the match came on game point in the third game of the second set when he disputed a line call in McEnroe-like fashion.
“That got me fired up,” Young said. “I don’t even think [the umpire] was watching the point. It was game point for me, so I would’ve won the game. As soon as that happened it was a turning point.”
In the rest of the afternoon’s action, Aggie No. 1 Johannes Zelle defeated Penzes in a short match, 6-3, 6-1.
The only singles loss of the match for the Aggies came at the No. 3 spot where junior J.J. Netto lost to Dzhafarov, 6-3, 6-0. Netto has struggled in his first year at Utah State, winning only one singles match so far this season.
In the final two matches of the day, both the No. 5 and No. 6 spots posted wins.
Marchant, the No. 5, handled Reynolds rather easily, winning 6-2, 6-2. At the No. 6 spot, Tyden took two long sets to beat Volger, 7-6, 7-5.
“We’re a little beat up, but everybody competed well,” Wright said. “I felt like we focused well after a bad game or a bad set. We got back on track.”
The Aggie men will now have a break until their next match on Feb. 22 against Mesa State. That match will also include the women’s team as well. Times are yet to be announced.
The Aggie women will be in action for their first home match Thursday against Weber State. Start time is slated for 1 p.m.
-jhislop@cc.usu.edu