Women’s tennis back in the win column
The Aggie women’s tennis team played their way back into the win column Tuesday with a 5-2 win over Idaho State University.
Highlighting the Aggies’ win was the play of Utah State’s top two singles players in freshman Hailey Swenson and sophomore Brianna Harris.
Swenson and Harris teamed up to defeat ISU’s Lisel Lewis and Lauren Pascoe, 8-4, in No. 1 doubles to open the match. In No. 2 doubles the Bengals’ Valerie Espinoza and Sophie Dang defeated USU’s Britney Watts and Taylor Perry, 8-2.
Idaho State, playing the match without a sixth player, was force to default in both the No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles pairings. The defaults gave the Aggies the doubles point for the match, as well as a point for the No. 6 singles spot.
Swenson and Harris shined again in singles play for the Aggies, although each of them in unfamiliar roles after swapping spots in the singles pairings.
“Hailey’s just been winning fairly consistently and so we just thought let’s flip-flop it,” USU head coach Christian Wright said.
Swenson, playing No. 1 singles for the first time, kept to her winning ways with a straight set victory of 6-1, 6-2 over ISU’s Lewis. Swenson is now 9-1 in her last 10 singles matches.
Harris, playing in No. 2 singles, cruised to a victory over ISU’s Stephanie Roldan by a final of 6-0, 6-2.
Taylor Perry, playing up to No. 4 singles from her regular spot of No. 5, staged a comeback victory over ISU’s Pascoe. After dropping the first set, 2-6, Perry rebounded with a 6-4 win in the second set. With the Aggies having already clinched a team victory, the third set was decided in tiebreaker format, with Perry winning 12-10 over Pascoe.
The two wins for the Bengals in Tuesday’s match came in the No. 3 and No. 5 singles pairings. In No. 3 singles, USU’s Watts fell to Dang in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6. The No. 5 singles match-up, like the No. 4 pairing, required a third-set tiebreaker to determine a winner. USU’s Marie Livingston lost the first set to ISU’s Espinoza 6-2, then bounced back in the second set to win 7-6 on a tiebreaker. Espinoza regained control in the third-set tiebreak to finish off Livingston by a final of 10-5 to log Idaho State’s second team point of the match.
The win is the Aggies’ second over the Bengals this season in as many attempts-the first match ending in a 6-1 final in favor of Utah State. The Aggies improve their record to 7-13 on the season, going into their final regular season match on Friday against Montana State University.
-matt.sonn@aggiemail.usu.edu