All eyes were on the No. 1 court at Eccles Tennis Center Friday night as Utah and Denver were tied 3-3. It came down to Utah’s Margo Pletcher and Denver’s Julia O’Loughlin to decide the winner.
“There was definitely a good amount of pressure, I just started to play the No. 1 spot,” Pletcher said. “I honestly play better under pressure, so I didn’t mind it.”
While Pletcher didn’t mind the gravity of the moment, she wasn’t able to pull through for the Utes. She lost in the third set and the entire Utah squad lost 4-3.
To start off the match, Utah handily won the doubles point. Taylor Calton and Luisa Da Rosa took down Evy Van Genechten and Charlottle Derbyshire at the No. 3 doubles spot, 6-2. On court No. 1, Briana Turley and Pletcher sealed the doubles point for the Utes, beating O’Loughlin and Maureen Slattery 6-3 to put Utah up 1-0.
Jena Cheng defeated Derbyshire 6-2, 6-2 to give the Utes a 2-0 lead. The Pioneers responded, rattling off two straight wins to tie the match up at 2-2. Bianca Mok took care of Turley, shaking off a close first set to win 7-5, 6-2, giving Denver its first point of the match. Sarah Richter, the lone senior on the Ute squad, fell to Slattery, 6-4, 6-4.
Calton secured a point for Utah by beating Van Genechten 6-2, 6-4 to put the Utes up 3-2 with just two matches left in play.
After losing the first set to Morgan Barnhill 6-4, Alexia Petrovic was tied with Barnhill, 5-5 in the second set. Then, Barnhill won the last two games, beating Petrovic 6-4, 7-5, tying the match up 3-3.
Head coach Mat Iandolo was hopeful his team would be able to push past Denver’s lower seeds, but was ultimately let down once the match was tied up.
“It was disappointing because I knew [Denver’s] strength was its 1, 2 and 3,” Iandolo said. “I thought if we won the doubles point, we would be able to take care of business at 4, 5 and 6.”
It was clear that Pletcher vs. O’Loughlin was going to be a close match from the first set. O’Loughlin won the first set 7-6. Pletcher then responded, winning the second set 6-4 to force the winner-take-all third set.
In the third set, Pletcher and O’Loughlin battled with all of their teammates on the adjacent court cheering them on. The two exchanged games, each holding serve in the tense match. With Pletcher up 5-4, O’Louglin again held serve, tying the match up 5-5. The turning point came when O’Loughlin finally broke Pletcher and took a 6-5 lead. O’Loughlin didn’t give up a single point in the next game, and won 7-5, breaking Utah’s heart.
After such an emotionally draining and heartbreaking loss, Iandolo thinks the team will be eager to bounce back.
“It can work to motivate you, or it can get you down,” Iandolo said. “I think this team will use it to motivate them.”
The Utes’ next match is Thursday, Feb. 11, against Utah State at 5 p.m. at Eccles Tennis Center.
“Luckily, we have almost a week until our next match, and I’m going to give [the team] the next couple days off,” said Iondolo. “We’ll get at it on Monday.”
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