Bouncing back from a bad loss can be tough — especially when thenext couple of matches will be just as difficult.
Despite that fact, San Diego State’s women’s tennis team didexactly that during its last home stand. After a disappointing 7-0loss to No. 12 USC last Wednesday, SDSU came right back to beat No.17 Notre Dame 5-2 Friday. It followed with a 5-2 win over No. 41Kansas State Tuesday.
“We lost the doubles, but we didn’t let that rattle us,” Aztecshead coach Peter Mattera said of the Notre Dame match. “We came outand played tremendous singles on all six courts.”
After the win Friday, No. 53 SDSU (7-6) looked to continue itsstrong play against KSU Tuesday.
“Beating Notre Dame was an awesome win for us,” senior JulieChidley said. “It makes it hard coming off a big win like thatbecause you have to still be pumped up to play the next team.”
But pumped up they were.
SDSU came out swinging from the start with a sweep in doubles toearn the doubles point. Even though the Aztecs have been strong indoubles all season, the team tried some new match-ups against KSU.The most impressive match was at No. 2 doubles, where junior SilviaTornier and freshman Indra Erichsen, both German natives, shut outtheir opponents 8-0.
“It was a good game,” Erichsen said. “It was the first time Iplayed with Silvia but I really enjoyed it and I think she enjoyed ittoo. It was good for our self-confidence.”
Junior Katja Karrento and sophomore Katalina Romero moved up fromtheir usual slot at No. 2 to No. 1 and had no problems beating theNo. 53 team of Alena Jecminkova and Andrea Cooper, 8-4.
“We could not have played doubles any better than we did,” Matterasaid.
With the doubles point in hand, SDSU picked up quick wins fromsenior Katey Becker on court five and from Chidley on court six. Thematch was then decided at the No. 1 singles position where SilviaTornier took care of Jecminkova. Both of SDSU’s losses in the matchstretched to three sets and were very close.
“I think we have really started to put it together these last fewweeks,” Mattera said. “We are more confident and are concentrating onour strengths instead of the opponents’ weaknesses.”
Mattera said that he wants to keep the momentum rolling into thisweekend, which will mark the beginning of conference play.
SDSU heads to Las Vegas this weekend to kick off conferencematches against Utah on Friday at 10 a.m. and Brigham Young onSaturday at 10 a.m.
The Utes (7-7) are fresh off a 7-0 loss against TCU and shouldpresent less of a challenge than No. 44 BYU (6-9). The Cougars arealso coming off a loss to TCU, but played a close 4-1 match. BYUexpects a big boost from freshman Rebecca Pike, who made her debutfor BYU last week by stepping immediately into the No. 1 singlesposition.
