USU women end on low note; Lady Aggies finish regular season with loss
The USU women’s tennis team saw it’s regular season end on a low note Saturday after going winless in a three match stint at the Appleton Tennis Center on the campus of Boise State University.
After being shut out by host team Boise State Thursday afternoon, the Aggies squared off against the University of Idaho Friday morning and the University of Nevada-Reno Saturday morning.
Friday’s match began with a tightly contested doubles point in which USU’s No. 1 team of Lindsey Bennion and Andrea Barker lost in a tie-breaker, 9-8, to Idaho’s Patricia Ruman and Mariel Tinnirello.
In the rest of the doubles competition, USU’s No. 3 team of Courtney Anderson and Dee Dee Nelson beat Idaho’s Tara Fielding and Lauren Shrubb, 8-5.
The deciding doubles match came at the no. 2 spot where USU’s Jill Smith and Lauren Monson lost to Idaho’s Kareen Konishi and Efrat Leopold, 8-2, giving the doubles point to Idaho.
In singles competition it wasn’t as close, with all matches being won in decided, straight-sets fashion.
At the No. 1 spot for the Aggies, Bennion nearly forced a second set tie-breaker in her loss to Ruman, 6-2, 7-5. At the No. 2 spot, USU’s Smith recorded one of the Aggies’ two victories by defeating Tinnirello, 6-4, 7-6.
After winning a first set tie-breaker at the No. 3 spot, USU’s Anderson was able to roll to a 6-1 second set win in her defeat of Leopold.
The good news ended there, however, as the Aggies’ No’s 4, 5 and 6 spots were all dismissed rather quickly in lopsided matches.
At the No. 4 spot, USU’s Nelson had a close first set before being shut out in the second set by Shrubb, 6-4, 6-0. At the No. 5 spot, USU’s Barker had a very tough match against Konishi, losing 6-1, 6-0. Also struggling was USU’s Monson at the No. 6 spot. She lost to Fielding, 6-1, 6-1.
In Saturday’s match, the Aggies started strong by winning the doubles point two matches to one, with wins by the No’s 1 and 3 teams.
At No. 1, Bennion and Barker pulled out a hard-fought 8-6 win over Nevada’s risten Davenport and Fiorella Velez. At No.3, Anderson and Nelson had an even closer match, winning 9-7 over Nevada’s Myriam Bouchlaka and Bach-Lan Pham.
At the No. 2 spot, the team of Smith and Monson continued to go winless on the weekend, losing to Nevada’s Audrey Bardot and Caroline Bailly, 8-5.
In singles competition it was Anderson once again carrying the flag for the Aggie women. Her win at the No. 3 spot proved to be the only one USU would get in singles play Saturday. Though she needed three sets to do it, Anderson overcame Velez, 7-5, 4-6, 10-6 to capture her team-high 16th win of the season.
In the rest of the singles competition the Aggies had few bright spots with No.’s 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 all losing in straight sets. Playing in their final regular season matches for Utah State, Aggies Bennion, Smith and Barker all ended with losses.
At the No. 1 spot, Bennion ran out of steam in the second set, losing to Bailly, 6-4, 6-1. In the No. 2 spot, Smith recorded a similar result, losing to Bouchlaka, 6-4, 6-0. At the No. 5 spot, Barker had trouble getting started in her loss to Bardot, 6-0, 6-3.
At No. 4 for the Aggies, Nelson had a close second set against Davenport, but came up just short of forcing a third set, losing 6-3, 7-5. Rounding out the competition for the Aggies, Monson had another rough go of it at the No. 6 spot, losing to Pham, 6-2, 6-3.
Though the women’s regular season is finished, the Aggie men will return to action on Monday when they will take on Idaho State University in their final regular season match. That match is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Sports Academy in North Logan.
Both the men’s team and women’s teams will head to Boise this weekend for the Western Athletic Conference championships which are scheduled for April 20-23 at the Appleton Tennis Center.
-jhislop@cc.usu.edu