The women’s tennis team suffered a tough loss last weekend to No. 20 Rice University by a score of 4-3. The Utes traveled to Houston with aspirations of punching their ticket to the NCAA Championships but left with heartbreak.
“We are all a little disappointed,” said head coach Mat Iandolo. “We just didn’t take advantage of the entire lineup. If we are going to be a great team the rest of this year and moving into next year, that issue will need to be addressed.”
Utah got off to a rough start as the No. 32 doubles duo of Tereza Bekerova and Paige Miles lost their anticipated matchup with the No. 24 duo of Natalie Beazant and Dominique Harmath. The Owls then went on to nab the victory in the No. 2 doubles slot, giving Rice the doubles point for the match.
While the Utes were looking to turn it around during singles play, the opposite happened. Rice went up 2-0 when Bekerova dropped her match in the No. 1 slot.
The bright spot of the day for Utah came as the unranked Sarah Pham faced No. 76 Harmath. Pham has played the role of spoiler this season before, and she was at it again. She won the match in impressive fashion — 6-3, 6-2 — giving the Utes their first point.
“I definitely played well,” Pham said. “I made all my put-away shots and served really well the whole match. I knew that [Harmath] was a tough competitor, and I had to bring my ‘A’ game.”
Utah was unable to capitalize further on that momentum, as Lucia Kovarcikova and Natasha Smith lost in the No. 4 and No. 5 slots, giving Rice the deciding points. Callie Craig and Paige Miles both won their slots to give the Utes a strong finish.
While the loss was disappointing, Utah is still just trying to look ahead and hopes it will get a bid to the NCAA Championships.
“We all knew what this match meant,” Iandolo said. “They were all disappointed, but they know that we have a few big matches this weekend. We need to take care of business in those matches and hope we get that bid. It is really up in the air right now.”
Utah will travel to Colorado this weekend to take on No. 57 Denver on Friday and Colorado on Saturday to wrap up the regular season.
“I think we just need to focus,” Pham said. “I think if we play like we have been, it will be enough for a sweep weekend.”