Women’s tennis struggles with consistency, falls to ISU
POCATELLO, Idaho — Frustration, consistency and playing in an unfamiliar environment all ended up taking a toll in the Utah State women’s tennis team match against Idaho State University.
In their third match of the season, the Aggies (1-2) fell to ISU (2-0) 5-2 on Wednesday in Pocatello.
USU co-captain Shelly Ferguson said the match was frustrating because Utah State had opportunities to win, but could not keep up with the Bengals’ consistency.
“I think the main thing was they were way more consistent than we were,” she said. “We just kind of got a little bit impatient at times, and I think that is what cost us.”
One factor that may not often be considered in tennis is the sound. ISU’s indoor courts had fans positioned all around the building, creating a low roar inside.
“I hated it. It felt like I had earplugs in my ears, but that’s not an excuse,” said Aggie Carolyn Larsen. “It’s different. You have to get used to your surroundings. It was kind of hard just because you couldn’t hear the ball, so you’d have to use your eyes a lot.”
Ferguson said players listen for the ball to bounce so they know when to swing the racket, helping with timing.
“When you can’t hear the ball bounce, it is already to your racket before you know it, and so it’s hard to get the right timing,” she said.
To open the match, the Aggies jumped out to leads in all three doubles matches, going up 5-0 in one, and 3-0 in another, but were unable to hang on. Idaho State was able to fight back and win all three of the matches and take the doubles point.
“We had the momentum, we just let them back in,” said USU Head Coach Chris Wright. “That built their confidence and knocked ours down a little bit. There were a lot of ways we still could have won it, but that doubles point was big.”
At No. 1, the ISU tandem of Eka Juania and Hayli Scott topped Caroline Pollock and Lindsey Bennion, 8-5. At No. 2, where USU had its third different combination in as many matches, Larsen and Ferguson fell 8-5 to Melanie Sanchez and Kristina Arutjunova.
In the third spot, Bengals Carol Tolsma and Armine Sarkavagyan topped Jill Smith and Andrea Hansen, 8-6.
In the No. 2 spot, Ferguson was filling in for Larsen’s normal partner, sophomore Haley Hawkins.
Once again the Aggies were without Hawkins, who has missed two matches due to illness. Wright said she is feeling better and he expects her to return soon.
Moving on to singles, the matches remained close, but the Aggies were unable to get the four victories they needed for the win.
At No. 1, Juania defeated Pollock, 7-6, 6-2, winning the first-set tiebreaker to pick up the momentum. In the No. 2 spot, Larsen fought back after dropping the first set, but fell to Sanchez, 6-0, 3-6, 6-2. Scott slipped past Bennion, 6-4, 6-3 at No. 3.
The Aggies picked up their two victories at No. 4 and No. 5. Ferguson dispatched Arutjunova, 6-1, 6-3, and Smith defeated Sarkavagyan, 6-2, 6-3.
The first two sets of the final match were split, 1-6, 6-1, but Tolsma went on to edge Hansen in the tiebreaker, 10-6.
“I’m proud of the effort,” Wright said. “We’ve got to have a killer instinct once we get that lead in doubles. We should have slammed the door shut. They’ll learn from that one.”
The appearance of the team on the court was also a little different in the match. The Aggies competed in new uniforms: blue with white trim, white numbers and embroidered logos. The presence of uniforms may seem like a small item, but it helped unify the team.
“It always helps to just see everyone and know you’re rooting for each other,” Ferguson said. “I think we have a really unified team. I think our friendship also helps us play harder because we care about each other so we want to win for the team, not just ourselves, so that also adds to motivation.”
The Aggies will now have two weeks off until their next match. Utah State will play Weber State University on Feb. 20 at the Sports Academy and Racquet Club.
The time off isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, as the Aggies are looking forward to the chance to work on their games.
“Playing makes it completely obvious what you need to work on, so it’s great because we can just focus on those things and get everything ready and build our confidence more in practice,” Ferguson said.
Larsen also said she is looking forward to the opportunity for the team to fine tune its game, and move up to the level it needs to be at.
“These last two matches we’ve all been not up to what we should be,” she said. “We should have had this doubles point. We should have, we should have … there’s a lot of should haves.”
–slbk5@cc.usu.edu