Women’s tennis splits home-opening weekend
Utah State’s women’s tennis team worked hard in a near clean sweep of non-conference opponent Portland State University Saturday evening.
Right out of the gate, each of USU’s doubles teams conquered with ease, with the duo of Taylor Perry and Julie Tukuafu gaining a shut-out victory, 8-0 against PSU’s Masha Los and Nayantara Vadali.
The rest of the match was a series of tough sets that the Aggies would overcome to win. Senior Hailey Swenson would finish her match quickly with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Anya Dalkin. After that first victory the Aggies never let go and won all but one of the rest of the matches en route to a final score of 6-1.
Head coach Christian Wright said, “I am glad for the challenges during this match with all the different playing styles of PSU, and how that will prepare us for our next match in Las Vegas.” Junior Romina Nedakovic fought through an extremely physical match against the Vikings’ Caitlin Stocking closing her out in the first set 6-0 and finishing her off in the second 7-5. The lone loss by the Aggies team was a hard fought match by sophomore Jaclyn West who was beat out by the Vikings’ Yuki Sugiyuma 6-2, 6-0 in the No. 1 singles pairing.
Overall, the victory is a welcomed one after the Aggies marked up its first in-conference loss against Western Atheletic Conferecne rival Boise State Friday morning. The Broncos, who were ranked 39th prior to the match and USU’s highest ranked opponent, fell behind to Aggie doubles teams early in the match. The Aggie momentum was short lived though as Boise State came back to win all three of the double matches.
“I thought that we came out and started very well. I felt that we lost focus after Boise State scored a few points on us, and they took the momentum,” Wright said.
Hailey Sweson a senior ranked as the Aggies No. 2 provided an amazing come back win against Boise State’s Sonia Klamczynska. By winning the her first set 7-5 and losing her second 5-7, she won the match by rallying from a 7-1 deficit to a 11-9 victory.
“Boise State had already played a few more matches than us so they were a little more match tough and ready than we were, but we are making adjustments to be ready for next our next match,” Wright said.
After this weekend the USU Women’s Tennis team has a 2-1 season record and a 0-1 in conference play. Their next matches will be against the UNLV Rebels Feb.18th and the UC Riverside Highlanders Feb 19th.
– mfiggat@gmail.com