Tennis team ‘playing for the seniors’
Sunday’s match against No. 44 New Mexico will be the last time two Utah State men’s tennis players take to the court.
Seniors Matt Sweet and Marcus Fritz will finish their careers at Utah State as winners. Both have watched the program transform from a perennial bottom-feeder to a top-ranked team in the Mountain West.
“The WAC was good,” Sweet said. “We were one of the lower teams in the WAC every year. Now were the top team or one of the top teams in the Mountain West. The change is night and day. It’s crazy. It’s been a roller coaster ride.”
According to second-year head coach Clancy Shields, Sweet and Fritz are part of the motivation and leadership that have helped bring the team to where it is today.
“The guys all love them,” Shields said. “They care about them. When we talk about ‘playing for the seniors, this year is about the seniors,’ the other guy’s eyes light up. That’s been their role. The guys want to play hard for them and send them away from Utah State with a really positive lasting memory.”
Fritz has played four years at Utah State and is originally from Stockholm, Sweeden. He said he has enjoyed his time at USU and is going to miss his teammates and Aggie family.
“We’re all like a big family on the team,” Fritz said. “It’s going to be hard not seeing these guys every day. It’s going to be weird not coming to practice and go to war with these guys. That’s what I’m going to miss the most.”
The team builds up a family feeling is by celebrating wins, early morning workouts and weekend football games. Sweet, who is from Salt Lake City, shares similar feelings about what he’s going to miss once he moves on from the university.
“I’m definitely going to miss all my teammates,” Sweet said. “I’ve kinda got eight brothers out here. The day-in-day-out practicing and early morning sessions, everything we did, we did it together. I’m going to miss everything, but I’ve had a good time in my four years here. It’s gone fast.”
Shields said that both players are going to be missed, on and off the courts.
“We play football every weekend,” Shields said. “In the fall this year he (Sweet) laid out for every pass I threw him, even if it was 10-yards away. He’s the ultimate competitor. I can put him in any situation and he’s going to compete as hard as he can. I love that about him.”
As for Fritz, coach Shields said that he will miss the connection they have while Fritz competes.
“I’ve been on Marcus’ court almost the whole year,” Shields said. “I’m going to miss the connection we have when he plays. … That’s a special connection for a coach, when a kid is playing with a lot of passion and they do something well and give you a fist pump. Nothing has been more special than when he wins a point. He’s overjoyed, I’m overjoyed and there’s that bond that we’ve created.”
Both players are majoring in exercise science and plan to stay around in the fall to finish up school and help out with the team in any way they can.
In the current all-time standings at Utah State, Sweet is ranked No. 4 and Fritz is No. 5 in doubles wins with 44 and 36 wins respectively. Jakob Asplund is first all-time with 62 wins. In singles wins, Sweet is No. 7 with 38 wins and Fritz is No. 12 at 33 wins. Jason Trask is first in all-time singles wins and has 63.
“We’ve got to have a standard of excellence,” Shields said. “Those two seniors have set the bar high. Now our freshman and sophomores, they look at that bar that’s being set and they want to knock it off, and we encourage that.”
Despite all of their personal successes, the seniors have the same favorite memory from their time here: beating BYU for the first time in program history this season.
“Taking out the Cougars this year in our first match, that was a big one,” said Sweet about his favorite moment while being at USU.
Fritz felt like the win was a reward for working hard.
“The best moment would probably be BYU this year,” Fritz said. “To go down there and get that 4-3 win, it was an amazing feeling. All of the hard work that we did, it felt like it was worth it.”
There are still five matches left in the season, and the Mountain West tournament that begins on April 22.
“Their legacy is going to live on,” Shields said. “We still have a lot of season left to play. Hopefully at the end of April we’ll be sniffing the dance, the NCAA tournament.”
Next season the Aggies will not have any senior players on the team but will depend on juniors and sophomores for leadership.
“I’m going to miss those guys a lot,” Shields said. “It will be weird not to have seniors next year. It’s something we say all the time is ‘We’re playing for the seniors.’ I’m going to have to find something else we’re playing for.
“If you ask everyone on the team, ‘Do you love these guys? Will you give your all for these guys? Will you run through a brick wall for these guys?’ it’s an absolute yes. That’s really cool to have players on the team that guys love, that they’ll do anything for.”
— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor