The Weber State University men’s tennis team recently traveled to California where it took on the University of California, Davis and Sacramento State University. The Wildcats fell in both matches.
WSU lost to UC Davis 6-1 on Friday in Davis, Calif. The Cats earned their one point in the No. 4 singles match with Peter Ramstromer Pello, defeating Josh Albert 6-3, 6-2. Pello picked up his first singles win of the season.
“We played different I guess you could describe it,” WSU Head Coach Jared Burnham said. “We got a win at the No. 4 singles position. He did a nice job.”
Burnham said everyone played okay, but he wishes they could have pulled out a win.
The doubles pair Simon Unger and Oliver Good both met their match against Hugo Verdi-Fortin and Kyle Miller. The doubles pair, ranked at No. 43, fell for the first time this season with a 8-5 loss against the the team from UC Davis.
Burnham said the factors of simply playing away from home in a different climate and environment can be very challenging. Therefore, the upper hand is always given to the home team.
“We had some good and bad moments in our matches,” Burnham said. “Unfortunately, the odds were stacked against us. We were outdoors, away from home, we had low altitude, and we were playing a tough team.”
Ben Rode also fell in his match against UC Davis’ George Horowitz 6-4, 6-3.
“UC Davis was really a tough team,” Rode said, “and playing there made it even tougher.”
Rode also said despite the rough start to the season, he feels the team is doing well.
“Overall the team this year has been so dedicated,” Rode said. “They are very committed and are not out for just individual wins. We are all after team success.”
Following the loss to the Aggies, the Wildcats faced off against SSU.
The match against the Hornets started out well for WSU, who took the first point.
In doubles, WSU pulled off a pair of very tight matches for the win. After the Hornets took an 8-4 win in the No. 2 match, Unger and Good took a 9-7 win over Sean Miller and Javier Millan in the No. 1 match, putting the point in the hands of Scott Hintze and Ryan Garner in the No. 3 match. The Wildcat duo responded, pulling out a 9-8 (7-4) win over Marek Marksoo and Roy Brandys.
Despite the good start, the Wildcats couldn’t hold back the Hornets in singles play and fell 6-1 to the Hornents.
In singles, only Dave Hintze managed to push to a third set as he won the second set in a 6-1, 3-6, 10-7 loss to Brandys in the No. 4 match.
The loss drops the Wildcats to 1-4 overall and 0-1 in Big Sky play while the Hornets won for the first time in four matches on the season.
Good said the team is focusing on improving and continuing to get better as the season continues.
“We have some areas we need to improve on. We know that,” Good said. “We are working very hard, so our results will improve, and I am confident they will.”
