University of Washington
Utah State
UW Defeats Utah State 6-1
January 20, 2017 | Men's Tennis
SEATTLE โ In their third home match of the early season, the Washington men's tennis team moved to 3-0 on the year with a 6-1 win over Utah State today at the Nordstrom Tennis Center.
"It was a fun match on a Friday night," said head coach Matt Anger. "On every court we had guys hitting the ball well including that last match, Piers Foley was playing real well and Serrano was very solid."
Each doubles match became a battle, with the two teams trading leads on every court. On court two, Kawika Lam and Enzo Sommer fell a game behind early and were unable to bounce back, falling to Jonas Maier and Jack Swindells 6-3. Piers Foley and Wendell Watanabe drew the doubles even on court one shortly after, fighting out a 6-4 win after Utah State came back to tie the match 3-3 earlier. It all came down to court three, where Amit Batta and Jake Douglas had come back from a 1-2 deficit to lead 5-4. Each side traded points, leading to a deuce, when Washington was able to win with a great shot near the net by Douglas.
To begin singles UW grabbed the first set on all six courts, with Sommer picking up the first win of the evening on court two 6-1, 6-2. Leading the team score 2-0 over the Aggies, 60th ranked Stewart and Douglas defeated their opponents within seconds of each other, clinching the victory for the Huskies with wins on courts one and three respectively.
"The courts that we won, they may have looked lopsided, for example Jake Douglas at 6-2, 6-0, I've seen Barajas play before and he's a very solid player and that was a good win," said Anger. "Mitch Stewart was very tough as well, his opponent was making a lot of balls and that was a good battle."
Batta picked up his second dual match victory of the season on court six, defeating Daniel Echeverry 6-3, 6-2, with Gal Hakak finishing just behind him on court four to give Washington a 6-0 lead. On court five Piers Foley and Samuel Serrano went to a tie-breaker third set with the dual match already clinched, but Foley was unable to battle back for the win, falling 4-6, 6-3, 10-7.
"I think we were really solid tonight down the line and that's a good sign early in the year," said Anger. "I think sometimes you have a couple of courts where you're playing well, and a couple of guys are OK, but it was nice to see guys doing well the whole way through."
The Huskies will be back in action on Sunday, when they host Gonzaga in the Nordstrom Tennis Center at noon. As always, admission is free with pizza served to all in attendance between the doubles and singles matches.
RESULTS
Washington โ 6
Utah State โ 1
Doubles
Court 1 โ Foley/Watanabe (UW) def. Serrano/Wehnelt (USU) 6-4
Court 2 โ Maier/Swindells (USU) def. Lam/Sommer (UW) 6-3
Court 3 โ Batta/Douglas (UW) def. Barajas/Bucur (USU) 6-4
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3
Singles
Court 1 โ No. 60 Mitch Stewart (UW) def. Kai Wehnelt (USU) 6-1, 6-4
Court 2 โ Enzo Sommer (UW) def. Jack Swindells (USU) 6-1, 6-2
Court 3 โ Jake Douglas (UW) def. Jaime Barajas (USU) 6-2, 6-0
Court 4 โ Gal Hakak (UW) def. Sergiu Bucur (USU) 6-1, 6-3
Court 5 โ Samuel Serrano (USU) def. Piers Foley (UW) 4-6, 6-3, 10-7
Court 6 โ Amit Batta (UW) def. Daniel Echeverry (USU) 6-3, 6-2
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3, 6, 4, 5
Players Mentioned
