Winning streak snapped
As one streak ends, another begins.
After compiling a somewhat unnoticed 11-match home winning streak, the USU
men’s tennis team lost three in a row this past weekend to bring their team record to 8-8 this year.
The above-mentioned winning streak, which is now history, dates back to last year when the Aggies won six consecutive home matches to close out the ’05 spring season. It continued through the first half of this season as the Aggies christened their new facility in style, winning five home matches in a row.
But the luck stops there.
The winning streak, which began with a 6-1 routing of Weber State Feb. 1,
2005, ended Friday with a 6-1 loss to another Big Sky team, the Montana State Bobcats.
Friday’s match pitted the No. 1 ranked team in the Big Sky against the shorthanded Aggies who were competing without their No. 2 singles player, senior Joao Pinho.
Pinho was unable to play due to illness and was replaced in the lineup by junior Dantley Young.
The match began with the Aggies losing the doubles point and then dropping
five of six singles matches. The lone singles win for the Aggies came at the No. 3 spot where freshman Bryan Marchant defeated MSU’s Marek Gibiki, 7-6, 1-6, 6-1.
Saturday afternoon, the Aggies played host to Loyola Marymount in a match that
saw the return of Pinho to the lineup and a continuation of Friday’s frustrations.
Loyola Marymount won the doubles point and then proceeded to win five of the
six singles points. Once again, USU’s Marchant recorded the Aggies’ only victory, though doing it this time from the No. 4 spot. He beat LMU’s Linas Cicenas, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.
Nearly winning at the No. 3 spot for the Aggies was Young, who lost his match
with LMU’s Reyniere Roxas in a final set tie-breaker, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7.
In Sunday’s action, the Aggies took on the Grizzlies of the University of Montana in a close match that the Aggies lost, 4-3.
The match began with the Aggies winning the doubles point with victories by
the No’s 1 and 3 teams.
At the No. 1 spot, the team of sophomore Johannes Zele and Pinho pulled out a hard-fought 9-8 victory over UM’s Colin Dektar and Josh Katz. At the No. 3 spot, the team of Marchant and freshman Mike Banks won 8-4 over UM’s Jan Steenkamp and Brady Tommerup.
The difference in this match came in singles competition where Montana won
four of the six matches.
At the No. 1 spot for the Aggies, Zelle lost his match with UM’s Steenekamp in
three sets, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. At the No. 4 spot, Marchant also had a close one, losing in two sets to UM’s Felipe Raw, 7-6, 7-5.
Posting singles wins for the Aggies were the No’s 5 and 6 spots. At the No. 5
spot, sophomore Jonas Tyden defeated UM’s Katz, 6-1, 6-3, while Banks won his match at the No. 6 spot against Um’s Tommerup, 6-3, 6-4.
The Aggies will be off, both the men and women, until the women take on Weber State in Ogden April 6 at 2 p.m. The Aggie men’s next match will also be in Ogden against Weber State. That match will be April 12, also at 2 p.m.
-jhislop@cc.usu.edu