Tennis teams finish preseason on a high note
Utah State’s women’s tennis team participated in the United States Tennis Association/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Mountain Regional Championships this past weekend. The championship was held at the University of Las Vegas-Nevada’s Fertitta Tennis Courts. The USU team competed against 18 other schools, including in-state rivals BYU, Utah and Weber State, along with Western Athletic Conference foes Boise State, Idaho, Nevada and New Mexico State.
“We played some schools in the WAC, some from the Mountain West, and some from Big Sky, so we got a feel for a lot of different competition,” said head coach Christian Wright.
“I feel that we played well, though. I can see things that we are doing well, and things that we need to work on. These fall tournaments are a really good gauge of where your team is-physically, mentally, and as teammates.”
In its first day of action, the USU women’s team advanced five singles competitors to round two.
A big factor that helped the girls out, according to Wright, was the low elevation.
“We just physically are at our peak when we can play in such low elevations,” he said.
Sophomore Jaclyn West defeated Wyoming’s Rebecca Berger
(6-0, 6-0) while sophomore Kristina Voytsekhovich took the win over Northern Colorado’s Stephanie Catlin ( 6-4, 6-0) in their first rounds, respectively. West improved to 6-2 on the season with the match, while Voytsekhovich evened her record at 3-3.
Junior Monica Abella fought her way through three sets to defeat Montana State’s Andrea De La Torre (1-6, 6-4, 6-3), bringing her record to a 2-3 mark on the season. Seniors Taylor Perry and Hailey Swenson each advanced to the second round after defeating Perry defeated Weber State’s Kassia Adamso ( 6-2, 4-6, 6-2) and Swenson took out New Mexico’s Nikolina Grbac (6-4, 7-5). Perry improved to 5-1 on the season, and Swenson continued to lead the Aggies in singles action with a 10-1 record.
Day two proved to be lucrative for USU as well. In singles action, two USU competitors advanced to the third round. Jaclyn West defeated BYU’s Liza Ezhova (7-6, 3-6, 7-5) in the second round and then fell to Utah’s Anastasia Putilina (7-5, 6-2) in the third round. West improved to 5-3 record with that match. Hailey Swenson defeated Northern Arizona’s Orsi Golovics ( 6-3, 7-5) in round two and fell in round three to Boise State’s Elyse Edwards (7-5, 6-1).
Utah State advanced junior Brianna Harris and sophomore Kristina Voytsekhovich to the second round of doubles. Harris and Voytsekhovich took the win over Colorado State’s Caitlin Fluegge and Veronika Wojakowska (8-4) in round one then fell to Idaho’s Victoria Lozano and Lauren Simpson (8-5). Harris and Voytsekhovich are 2-2 in doubles this fall.
USU’s campaign ended with action on Saturday.
Junior Julie Tukuafu was the lone Aggie to compete on Saturday. Tukuafu fell to New Mexico’s Nikolina Grbac (6-0, 6-2) in the third round of the consolation singles flight. Tukuafu finishes pre-season action with a 4-4 singles record.
Hailey Swenson led the USU in singles competition with an impressive 10-3 record. Sophomore Jaclyn West followed with a 6-3 singles record. Wright said that Hailey and Jaclyn were particularly focused, and very “in” the tournament. In doubles competition, senior Taylor Perry and West finished the fall with a perfect 4-0 record.
The USTA/ITA Mountain Regional Championship marks the end of fall play for the Aggies, and with that in mind, Wright and the team made a list of goals for the upcoming season.
“We first want to improve our effort. We want to always give one hundred percent,” he said. “Our second goal is to improve upon sportsmanship. We always want to be classy, and we always will represent ourselves, our team, and the university well.”
The third goal has to do with attitude. “We want to always stay positive, and fight our way through every match.”
On top of those goals, the girls are expected to stay in good physical shape until January, a goal that can prove difficult during winter and holiday months.
“We will continue to play one another, run, and condition to stay in good shape. The girls have to be able to make it through a match,” Wright said.
“Adaptable” is the paramount characteristic, according to Wright, that wins matches.
“You have to be able to compete at different levels, size up the competition, and improvise when your game plan doesn’t go accordingly. Tennis, in a lot of ways, is about change.”
He continued, saying, “A lot of times we focus on one particular shot, and other times we are too steady. We need to look to balance ourselves, between looking for opportunities to attack and playing the back court. We get impatient and miss those opportunities.”
USU will resume action in January 2011, and looks to grab a WAC title.
“I expect a lot out of the girls,” Wright said. “Working on our confidence is huge, but I am seeing good things. The dedication level for our team is very high.”
The men’s tennis team also saw some competition this weekend, participating in the Utah Invitational on Friday. The matches were held in Salt Lake’s Liberty Park, hosted by the University of Utah.
The weekend was highlighted by seniors Jakob Asplund and Nikita Ryashchenko advancing to the semifinals of the singles consolation draw, with Asplund stealing second-place in the singles consolation flight.
Asplund and Ryashchenko advanced to the semifinals of the singles consolation draw. Asplund took second-place after defeating BYU’s Roman Warias, 7-6, 3-6, 10-8, in the semifinals round then lost by default in the final round to Utah’s Alejandro Medinilla. Medinilla previously defeated Ryashchenko (7-6, 7-5) in their semifinal round. Asplund leads the Aggies in singles action with an 8-3 singles record.
In doubles action, senior Bryan Marchant and sophomore Sven Poslusny defeated Boise State’s Scott Sears and Eric Sheldon (8-5) in the second round. Marchant and Poslusny suffered their first loss of the season, falling to BYU’s Daniel Hwang and Spencer Smith (9-7) in round three. The duo still leads USU with a team-best 6-1 mark.
In the doubles consolation draw, freshman Fredrik Peterson and senior Alex Thatcher defeated BYU’s Ricard Campos and Roman Warias by default in round one, then lost to Utah’s Matt Cowley and Brad Weaver (9-7) in the second round. Peterson and Thatcher are now 1-1 on the season.
Men’s tennis will wrap up fall competition this week. The team will head to La Vegas, where they will compete in the USTA/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Mountain Regional Championships through Oct. 23.
– kaylaclark@aggiemail.usu.edu