USU men’s and women’s tennis notch Sunday losses
The No. 57 ranked Utah State men’s tennis team lost to San Diego State 4-3 on Sunday. The loss snapped the Aggies’ seven-match winning streak and brought their record to 21-7 and 6-1 in the Mountain West.
The women’s tennis team also had a winning streak snapped and lost 5-2 on the road at Wyoming. That loss ended the four-match road win streak and dropped the team record to 10-11 and 2-2 in the MW.
The men lost the opportunity to clinch the MW title outright with the loss to SDSU. They already clinched a share of the title after beating UNLV on Friday.
“It was a good team win,” said first-year assistant coach Ben Mullis after the UNLV match. “I think we came out a bit slow and a little bit sheepish in the doubles. We had opportunities, especially on court three and court two, but we didn’t manage to seize them.”
On Sunday, the Aztecs’ Milen Iavakiev and Santiago Cevallos topped Romai Ugarte and Luis Lopez 6-3 in doubles actions at the No. 1 spot. The Aggies’ Jack Swindells and Jonas Maier dropped the second match 6-4 to Hendrik Jebens and Sander Gjoels-Andersen which gave SDSU the doubles point.
In singles play, the match was a back-and-forth affair. First, USU’s Jaime Barajas downed Freddy Gelbrich in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 to even the score at 1-1. Then, Jebens defeated Swindells 6-3, 7-5, at the No. 2 spot. It was Swindells’ first loss since Feb. 28.
The Aggies then won two-straight matches to take a 3-2 lead over the Aztecs. Samuel Serrano took Marko Goles-Babic in three sets 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 and Romai Ugarte beat Raul De la Torre in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 6 spot.
San Diego State won the final two matches and clinched the match.
The men’s tennis team now has two weeks off before the MW tournament begins on April 29. The three-day tournament will be held in Las Vegas.
In the women’s match, Magdalena Stencel and Nastya Tokareva of Wyoming defeated Meghan Lyall and Maggie O’Meara 6-2 in the first doubles match. The Aggies tied up doubles with the team of Nini Guensler and Lexi Turley beating Dorottya Jonas and Miranda Talbert 6-2 but Wyoming won the last doubles match to clinch the point.
In singles, Wyoming jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Ekaterina Tugarinova put Utah State on the board with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Tokareva. Then Stencel defeated Guensler 6-1, 7-6 in a tiebreaker to clinch the win for Wyoming. The only other Aggie win came from Monika Van de Vondel defeating Tessa Van der Ploeg 6-4, 6-2.
The women will play on Saturday at Boise State for the final match of the regular season. After the regular season ends, USU will compete in the MW tournament which starts on April 28 and run four days. The tournament is held in Fort Collins, Colorado.
— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor