Over the weekend, the Utah women’s tennis team took on Minnesota and Wisconsin in a back-to-back tournament. By the end of the weekend, Utah defeated both the Gophers and the Badgers 4-3, improving their record to 8-3 on the season.
In the first match of the weekend, the Utes were able to win four single matches to secure their win in a close game against the Gophers.
“This was a very good team win in Big Ten conference territory over a very experienced Gopher squad,” said head coach Mat Iandolo.
Although the third doubles match was won by Minnesota, sophomore Margo Pletcher and freshman Brianna Turley came back around to tie it up with a 6-4 win. Unfortunately, when the doubles points came down to a tiebreaker, Minnesota won it.
At the beginning of singles, Turley came back to tie it up 1-1 but fell behind again after Minnesota won another point in singles play.
Then the Utes decided to turn it on. The next win went to freshman Taylor Calton, who won 6-2, 6-1 to tie things up with the Golden Gophers. Utah briefly took the lead after Sarah Richter took home a 6-4, 6-3 victory in her match, but Minnesota tied it right back up.
In the last effort to win the match, sophomore Lexi Petrovic took the win with a 6-1, 6-4 score, sealing the win over their Big 10 foes.
“I have never clinched a match before this weekend, and it was awesome,” Petrovic said. “I didn’t know that was happening, but I stepped up, played my game, and we ended up winning, so it was a great feeling.”
In the second match of the weekend, Utah finished strong against Wisconsin, claiming the victory with the same score that defeated Minnesota.
“This was a solid win capping off a productive weekend in the Midwest,” Iandolo said. “The doubles point was won by Utah, which proved to be the deciding factor.”
To start off the match, Pletcher and Turley took the first win of the day with 6-2 score against Wisconsin. The winning continued in the double matches with the team of Calton and freshman Luisa Gerstner Da Rosa, winning their doubles match as well to secure the doubles point for Utah.
As single matches began, Turley won her match 6-3, 6-0, as teammate sophomore Jena Cheng finished with a 6-4, 6-3 victory herself. Unfortunately, the rest of the Utes in singles play were unable to grab wins, forcing another do-or-die situation for Petrovic.
Luckily for the Utes, the sophomore stepped up again,wining 7-5, 6-3 to secure the second victory of the weekend for Utah.
“I think we came out really strong and ready to play right from the doubles leading into the singles,” Petrovic said. “I think the energy we brought really helped us and the momentum just helped carry us through the entire weekend.”
Up next for the women’s tennis team is a return home to compete against Wyoming this Friday at the Eccles Tennis Center. This match is set to begin at 5 p.m. MT.
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