Utah State Men’s Tennis completes undefeated conference season with win over Boise State
Utah State Men’s Tennis claimed an outright regular-season conference championship on April 11 following a 4-2 win over conference foe Boise State.
After dropping the doubles point to open the match, the Aggies swept the top four singles points, dropping the fifth singles point during that time, to defeat the Broncos.
“As a team, we’ve been grinding every single day, and coach has been holding us accountable, so we haven’t been able to get better without his without his tutorage, without his guidance,” said Jean-Baptiste Badon, a senior on the team. “Just like trying to do my best for the team, and just super, super excited that I was able to come through when it counted.”
With the win, Utah State caps off an undefeated conference season and undefeated home slate, doing both for the first time since 2018. It is also the second regular-season title in the last three years for the program.
“The level of this conference is, I think, the highest it’s been in my seven years in the conference,” said head coach Aaron Paajanen. “So, for them to do what they did, not lose a conference match, it’s incredible. So, I’m happy for them.”
Utah State came into the day riding strong doubles play throughout the season, winning the doubles point in 12 straight matches. That point was led by the second doubles duo of Badon and Dmitri Goubin, who has not lost together this season.
At the top spot was the pairing of Xavier Calvelo and Jakub Medved, with Roman Venger and Eliot Nobel at the third position.
Calvelo and Medved got off to a rough start, quickly finding themselves down 4-1, a hole they were unable to climb out of, despite fighting back to make it 5-4 before ultimately falling 6-4.
Venger and Nobel started slow, trailing 2-1, before ripping off five straight games to win 6-2. Badon and Goubin battled to a 4-4 tie, but two strong games from the Broncos gave them the doubles point after a 6-4 win at the second doubles position.
“I don’t think our doubles was very good at all today, and maybe we needed that,” Paajanen said. “Maybe that’s going to motivate us to improve on a few things that I think we need to improve on.”
The doubles matches weren’t without some drama, as the matches started on the outdoor courts before rain forced the matches indoors on the back half of each match.
The Aggies found themselves trailing 1-0 at the start of singles play, something they’re not used to. It took three tight matches and one 6-3, 6-2 dominant win from Calvelo for them to prevail.
At the top spot, Badon started slow, finding himself in a 4-1 deficit early despite two break opportunities at 40 all. Badon battled to a 6-3 first set loss before coming alive in the second set and cruising to a 6-0 win, setting up a winner-take-all third set.
“For me, it’s going to be about how can I raise my level when it’s actually needed, and how can I raise it and keep it there for the rest of the match?” Badon said. “I know coach knows how to do that, so I’m not going to worry about it for next week.”
The third set saw each server hold serve until Badon led 5-4, where he surged to a break to win the match 3-6, 6-0, 6-4.
“My confidence was steadily rising throughout the third. It was just a matter of time,” Badon said.
At the second third spot, Venger battled in the first set and got out to a 5-4 lead in the first set, serving for the set. He was broken, tying the set at five, before falling behind 6-5. Venger held serve to six-all before battling to a 7-5 tiebreak win.
Venger dropped the second set 4-6 but dominated the third set 6-1 to win the match, which would ultimately seal the match for the Aggies overall.
“It was really mentally challenging. The match was really high-level. He played good. I played good. So, it was super tough,” Venger said. “Didn’t go as well in the second set, but third set, I’m really happy with my game, was locked in the entire set.”
The fourth singles position was Nobel, who battled to a tight 6-4, 7-5 victory. The first set was tied at four before Nobel held serve and broke serve to take the first set. The second set was the same story but was tied at five before Nobel’s surge.
The lone singles loss came in the fifth position, which wrapped up quickly with a 6-3, 6-1 win for Boise State just minutes before Venger ended the match.
Calvelo was the only Aggie to cruise through his match, with every other Utah State win coming in a tight match.
“It was an opportunity to prove to ourselves that even under different, unusual circumstances, we can still get the job done,” Paajanen said.