USU women’s tennis falls to Montana Saturday
The Utah State Aggie women’s tennis team fell to the University of Montana Saturday by a final score of 5-2.
Utah State was able to win the number one and number six spot matches. Hailey Swenson, a sophomore from North Salt Lake, played solid in the first match, taking the first two sets into extra points. Swenson lost the first set, 7-6, but then won the second by the same score. In the tiebreaking third set, Swenson took the winning point to put away Montana’s Liz Walker.
“It was a really scrappy match,” said head coach Christian Wright of Swenson’s match. “Hailey just hung in there and fought extremely hard. If you asked her, she’d probably say she played better in Friday’s close three-set loss to a girl from Montana State. She just hung in there and competed hard.”
Britney Watts, a junior from Salt Lake, was shut out by her opponent in the first set and lost 6-0 to Montana’s Lauren Gibson, but Watts did not go down easily. She won the second set 6-4 and pulled through in the third set to win the match and the point for her team.
“Desire,” Wright said about what drove Watts to the comeback. “It would be very easy to say, ‘It’s not my day,’ and pack it in. You’ve got to hand it to the girls overall.”
In doubles action, USU fought hard, but was not able to convert. Watts and Taylor Perry, a sophomore from Bountiful, were able to defeat Montana’s Gibson and Kayla Moyse by a score of 8-4.
“We played a lot better,” Perry said. “It felt good. We just were energized through the whole match and really positive.”
In doubles play, the three sets are played by three different duos, each working to win a set. Whichever team wins the majority of the pro sets, which are played to eight games instead of to the normal six, earns the doubles point for the team during the match.
Despite the positives of the match, the lady Ags also came across some hard times during the match. Montana won matches two, three, four and five and also captured the doubles point, winning two of the three pro sets in doubles play.
“We couldn’t return for the first 11 games, so they held the serves for a good while,” Swenson said of her doubles loss. “It was close. Our returns lost it for us. I think a lot of us will work on returns this week for sure. Everyone will be focusing on their own weakness.”
The Aggies have continued to fight and play hard this year despite their beleaguered record. USU is now 3-12 on the season after Saturday’s loss.
“It’s been a rough year,” Perry said. “I think there have been a lot of matches with a lot of effort where we didn’t come through. There have been a lot of close points that we’ve lost.”
Despite USU’s hardship, Wright said she remains optimistic.
“I see hope for the future. We’ve got a talented group,” Wright said. “It’s a matter of just keep pushing. There’s a lot of matches we can look back at. It’s kind of deceiving when you look at the scores. You really ought to look at each individual score and say, ‘We had the opportunity to get those points as a team and came up a little bit short.’ I hope they’ll stay confident in their abilities and keep working hard.”
The Lady Ags will return home for Thursday’s home match against Wyoming at the Logan Sports Academy and Racquet Club.
“We don’t expect anything but a hard fought match for both teams out of Wyoming,” Wright said.
The match starts at 9 a.m. and admission is free to the public.
–la.hem@aggiemail.usu.edu