The No. 53 Utah women’s tennis team hosted Washington State over the weekend, continuing its recent success by besting the Cougars 5-2 and extending its winning streak to five matches.
“I think this was a good win for our team,” said Utah head coach Mat Iandolo.
The Utes earned yet another doubles point against Wazzu, but the top Utah duo of Tereza Bekerova and Margo Pletcher failed to win their close match against the Cougars’ Elizaveta Luzina and Lize Leenknecht, losing 8-6.
However, No. 67 Bekerova got her revenge when she played Luzina in singles and won the match 6-2, 6-1. Jena Cheng was also able to beat Leenknecht in singles in a couple of close calls, winning 7-6, 6-4. Pletcher took out her frustrations by winning her match 6-0 in both sets, while Alexia Petrovic contributed by getting the 7-6, 6-4 win in her match.
With Washington State past them, the Utes now direct their full attention to a weekend matchup with Rice this Saturday morning at Coach Mike’s Tennis Academy.
The Utes now have three straight Pac-12 wins and are hoping to continue their winning ways against the Owls.
“I think that we’re in a good spot, but the Rice match is going to be very big for our team,” Iandolo said. “We’re on a five-match win streak, and we’ve moved ourselves up to this position where we keep improving.”
With this being the team’s final stand at home, the Utes will celebrate their seniors on Saturday. Iandolo is expecting his team to rise to the occasion, especially seniors Berekova, Lucia Kovarcikova and Elena Najera-Salas.
“I’m expecting leadership and a great performance,” Iandolo said. “[We need to] just continue to do what we’ve done the last five matches, which is bringing good intensity and really playing aggressive doubles.”
Against Rice, Iandolo hopes Berekova will come ready to play considering how she has been performing all season and since this will be her final home match.
“Hard to say [who will do well], but I’m going to expect a lot out of … Berekova,” Iandolo said. “She’s a senior, she’s our best player, certainly I have a hope that we’ll get a great performance out of her.”
Following the match against the Owls, Utah will play in a rivalry slate against BYU down in Provo next Wednesday. But according to Iandolo, the team isn’t even thinking about that.
“I’m not even focusing on that,” Iandolo said. “Every bit of focus is on Rice, and once we get through Rice, then we’ll worry about BYU.”
Iandolo said the team is going to have to work on stopping some of Rice’s top players, one being No. 21 Natalie Beazant, but they will be able to give Rice a good run since they are playing in Salt Lake City.
“They have a very talented team, particularly at the top of the lineup, so we’re going to have to neutralize that,” Iandolo said. “Our biggest strength is that we’re pretty good at defending our home court. I’m hoping to keep the momentum going that we’ve established over the last five matches.”
The match between Utah and Rice is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. MT.
@kbrenneisen