The No. 59 Utah women’s tennis team prevailed in a 4-3 thriller over Wyoming last Friday night at Eccles Tennis Center. Utah head coach Mat Iandolo was happy the Utes pulled it out, but he said the Utes also have a lot to work on before conference play.
“I’m happy we won, but I can’t say that I’m happy with the way we played, especially in doubles. I thought we played very tentative, and I think we took this team a little lightly,” Iandolo said. “We were lucky we got away with a victory, but it’s still a victory, and it still counts the same way, whether it’s 4-3 or 7-0. We’ll use what we learned today to make us better.”
The Utes trailed 1-0 after losing the doubles point to the Cowgirls. Wyoming’s Elisa Koonik and Tessa van Der Ploeg beat Luisa Da Rosa and Taylor Calton handily, winning 6-2 on Court 3. Magdalena Stencel and Nastya Tokareva beat Margo Pletcher and Brianna Turley at the No. 1 position, 6-4, to clinch the doubles point for the Cowgirls.
Iandolo said the team needs to focus on being more aggressive in doubles play.
“You win the doubles point in a match like this, and you win [the match] probably 6-1. The doubles point means that much in terms of momentum,” he said.
Alexia Petrovic and the Utes responded, as Petrovic won a decisive 6-1, 6-2 decision over Sanne Hoekstra at the No. 6 slot to tie the match up. Wyoming retook the lead when Tokareva beat Sarah Richter 6-3, 6-3 on Court 2, but Turley tied the match yet again for Utah, defeating Dorottya Jones 6-3, 6-3 at the No. 3 position.
The Cowgirls took a 3-2 lead after Stencel got the better of Pletcher, beating her 6-4, 6-1. Jena Cheng fought back hard after losing the first set 6-0, winning the second set 6-1. Cheng closed out the match by winning the third set 6-3, tying the match up at 3-3.
All eyes were on freshman Calton and Wyoming’s Koonik with the fate of the match resting on their shoulders. Calton said she wasn’t nervous with all the attention.
“I’m not really nervous when everyone watches me. I feed off knowing I have the support,” Calton said.
Calton squeezed past Koonik in the first set, winning 7-5. Koonik responded, taking the second set 6-3. With a sizable crowd behind her and all of her teammates cheering her on the adjacent court, Calton rose to the occasion, winning the first four games of the third set before dropping the fifth.
“I was just trying to play my game and look to be aggressive,” Calton said.
Up 4-1, Calton broke Koonik to take a commanding 5-1 lead. Koonik broke back to cut Calton’s lead to 5-2, then held serve, making it 5-3. Calton held serve in the ninth game, however, winning the match for the Utes after Koonik hit the ball into the net at 40-all.
Calton said she felt amazing after winning the match for the Utes.
“It feels really good — I’m really proud,” she said. “I knew that would be a challenge, but now that I’ve done it, I feel really good about it.”
Her coach echoed those sentiments.
“I was very proud that [Calton] held it together that third set,” Iandolo said. “She was in complete control of the match at 7-5, 3-1 and lost five straight games, but then won four straight games to basically take control of the third, so I thought that she did a good job of recovering.”
With the win, the Utes improve to 9-3. Utah starts Pac-12 play against Arizona on Friday. The match starts at 1:30 p.m. at the Eccles Tennis Center.
@JoeColesChrony