After leaving Provo with a hard-fought victory last week over BYU, the Utah women’s tennis team was hoping to stay on a roll as it headed to Los Angeles last weekend for daunting matchups with No. 1 USC and No. 4 UCLA.
“We were coming off an emotional match down at BYU, beating them for the seventh time in a row. Then, heading down to LA the next day, I felt that we could keep the momentum going,” said head coach Mat Iandolo.
The 59th-ranked Utes began the weekend’s competition Friday at Marks Stadium against the Trojans. Despite strong play from Utah, who played tough for several close sets, USC was able to affirm its status as a national powerhouse with a 7-0 sweep.
The Utes found themselves down 1-0 after USC took the doubles point with wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. In singles play, Utah faced considerable odds against the Trojan squad, which boasted five players nationally ranked by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
The Trojans scored the first points in singles play by defeating Utah’s Luisa Gerstner Da Rosa 6-1, 6-2 and Tereza Bekerova 6-3, 6-2. The match at the No. 2 spot between Ute Margo Pletcher and USC’s Gabby Smith was highly contested, but Smith won the match and sealed the victory for her team. The Utes came up short in the subsequent three matches but battled throughout the course of the day.
“We had a few close sets against USC but couldn’t close,” said Iandolo. “They had a mental edge, especially at home. [The team] will have to grow mentally in order to compete against the best teams in the country. I felt we were able to compete physically but not mentally.”
The next day, the Utes traveled ten miles across town to the Los Angeles Tennis Center to take on the fourth-ranked Bruins. Mirroring the struggles it had the previous day, Utah was outmatched by a strong UCLA team and lost 7-0.
The day kicked off with doubles play and a highly anticipated match-up between Utah’s 46th-ranked duo of Bekerova and Pletcher and the 19th-ranked Bruin duo Robin Anderson and Jennifer Brady. In a heated contest, Bekerova and Pletcher were edged out 8-5.
Shortly after, Utah’s Elena Najera-Salas and Gerstner Da Rosa were bested 8-2, and UCLA headed into singles play with a one-point lead.
Again finding themselves facing a team almost entirely consisting of nationally-ranked adversaries, the Utes were trumped in singles play. After two more Utah losses, UCLA took the 3-0 lead in the overall point total.
The Bruins were able to clinch the victory in the match between Bekerova and the nation’s top singles player in Anderson. With two set victories for the Bruins in the remaining three matches, the match was concluded, and the Utes fell to 3-6 in conference play this season.
In spite of some difficult losses, Iandolo maintains that the rigors of Pac-12 play are crucial for player development and that competing against top-tier teams is a step in the right direction as the program works towards becoming nationally prominent. He is proud of the successful season the Utes have had so far and attributes much of it to solid performances from experienced players and the collective effort of the team’s younger members to rally around injured veterans.
“The young players have their moments. The key as we transition is getting these moments to happen more consistently,” said Iandolo.
The Utes’ regular season concludes this Saturday, April 18 at Colorado. First serve is set for 11 a.m. MT.
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