Women tennis finish 8th in BWC
After coming into the Big West Conference tournament on a roll the Utah State tennis teams struggled through the consolation bracket over the weekend in Indian Wells, Calif.
The men’s team finished sixth in the tournament when it lost to No. 5 seed UC Riverside in the fifth place game on Sunday.
In singles play Riverside dominated as it won at No. 1, 2 and 5 to clinch the victory. Every set was won by at least 6-3.
The women, on Saturday, lost 4-3 to Idaho to take eighth in the women’s bracket. In singles play, the Aggies couldn’t quite win the three matches they needed as Idaho took four of the six to clinch seventh place in the tournament.
Carolyn Stephens won at No. 3 singles while Courtney Anderson won at No. 4 singles. The Vandals won the other four matches but at No. 6 singles Lauren Monson won her first set by taking the tiebreaker 7-3 but in the next two sets she lost 6-1, 6-1 to give the Vandals their fourth point to win the match.
On Friday both teams lost in their quarterfinal matches. The men lost to UC Santa Barbara 4-0. The matches were closer than in the Riverside match but Roshan Rasekhi and Dantley Young lost in singles play. Brad Ferguson couldn’t keep up in the second match falling 7-5, 6-2.
The women lost to No. 1 seed Pacific 5-0 but the No. 3 doubles pair of Courtney Anderson and Andrea Barker won their match 8-4.
The two losses put the Aggies into the consolation bracket on Saturday where the men had success but the women didn’t play as well.
Against Idaho the men won 5-0 as they jumped out to the doubles win taking both No. 1 and No. 3 doubles.
Joao Pinho and Rasekhi won 8-2 while Schenk and Ferguson won 8-4.
The Aggies continued their dominance in singles as Pinho won 6-4, 6-3 and Schenk won 6-2, 6-2. Ferguson won his match 6-2, 6-2 while Jonas Tyden won his No. 6 singles match 6-3, 6-0. The win allowed the Aggies to advance to the fifth place game on Sunday.
The women took on Cal Poly in their first consolation bracket match the Mustangs won at No. 1 and 2 doubles 8-4 and 8-1 respectively.
Cal Poly continued playing well in singles as they won 6-4, 6-0 at No. 2, 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3 and 6-1, 6-3 at No. 4. The loss put the Ags in the seventh place match later in the day on Saturday.
-krn@cc.usu.edu
Utah State´s Lauren Monson returns a serve earlier this season against Hawai´i. The USU women´s team lost to Cal Poly 4-0 Saturday. (Photo by John Zsiray)