Women’s tennis team gets past Cal State Fullerton
Senior leadership always matters in pressure situations and Carolyn Stephens, the lone senior on the Utah State women’s tennis team, won her third set Thursday night to win the Aggies’ Big West Conference tournament match 4-3.
After splitting her first two sets 7-5, 4-6 with Cal State Fullerton’s No. 2 Carla Rocha, Stephens took over and won the third set 6-2. The win was Stephen’s fourth straight in her singles matches.
The win assured the Aggies would advance to the quarterfinals against No. 1 seed Pacific because they had won two other singles matches and took the doubles point earlier in the day.
The Aggies won at No. 1 doubles 8-5 and No. 3 8-4 to take the doubles point, which was a major factor in their one-point victory. Jill Smith and Lauren Monson lost in their No. 2 doubles match 8-4.
“A couple points got away from us,” Utah State Head Coach Christian Wright said. “We played solid and were moving well. We had some good energy out there.”
The Ags came out in singles knowing they could win the match with just three wins in the six singles matches.
Lindsey Bennion and Jill Smith each lost both of their singles matches at No. 1 and No. 2, 6-1, 6-1.
Andrea Barker handily won her No. 5 singles match 6-2, 6-2 and Monson won her No. 6 singles match 6-3, 6-4. The matches were the first two wins in the singles portion of the match and put all the pressure on Stephens to pull her match out in the third set.
Courtney Anderson lost for the first time in six matches as she fell to Fullerton’s Mai-Ly Tran 6-4, 6-4.
The win helped give the Aggies confidence heading into their match with Pacific, Friday, Wright said.
“We got some play under our belt at the lower elevation,” Wright said. “The 2,000-foot drop affects the ball quite a bit.”
The Aggie women will play at least two more matches this weekend starting with Pacific on Friday. The men’s team also starts their tournament play Friday as they take on UC Santa Barbara at 3 p.m. in Indian Wells, Calif.
-krn@cc.usu.edu