Women’s tennis gets first victory of year
Utah State women’s tennis cruised to a second straight victory with a 6-1 win over Idaho State University Wednesday.
For the second match in a row, the Aggies opened up play by winning two of the three doubles match-ups, the second win coming after staging an impressive comeback in No. 2 doubles.
Sophomore Britney Watts and freshman Hailey Swenson battled back from an early 2-5 deficit to take six of the next seven games en route to the 8-6 win over ISU juniors Lauren Pascoe and Stephanie Roldan.
Utah State’s Brianna Harris and Bridgette Strickland won the No. 1 doubles match-up with an 8-4 win over ISU’s Lisel Lewis and Sophie Dang.
Following a loss in No. 1 singles by Brianna Harris, the Aggies controlled the rest of the match, winning every one of the pairings of No. 2 to No. 6 singles.
“I felt like we played pretty well,” head coach Christian Wright said. “We had good focus.”
For the second straight match, sophomore Britney Watts won the No. 4 singles match-up, this time in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2, over ISU’s Ali Rivera.
Just two days earlier, Watts was named the Western Athletic Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Week for her performance against Weber State on Feb. 2.
“I’ve been proud of her,” Wright said. “She’s improving all the time and getting more mentally tough.”
The Aggies improved their record to 2-1 on the season despite having a youthful roster that includes four freshman, three sophomores and a junior.
Wright said he is optimistic for what the future holds for his young team.
“I’m seeing improvement,” he said. “They’re working hard in practice, and they’ll keep getting better.”
The team will travel to Las Cruces, N.M., this weekend for scheduled meets against Northern Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico State and the University of Texas at El Paso.
-matt.sonn@aggiemail.usu.edu