By Brandon Tripp, Sports Writer
The Wildcat tennis teams had a busy weekend at the Phoenix Duals, playing five matches apiece in just three days. They came through in fine form with the men winning all five matches, while the women dropped only one match, taking four out of five and shutting out two opponents.
The women came back from Arizona with a 4-1 record, dropping their only match to the No. 2 team in the country, BYU-Hawaii, 8-1. The Seasiders are undefeated on the season and shut out every opponent they faced until they played ACU. The Wildcats beat three other teams over the weekend, taking down No. 23 Hawaii-Hilo and Western New Mexico 8-1 and defeating Dixie State and CSU-Pueblo in a pair of shutouts 9-0. The wins move the No. 7 Wildcats to 10-2 on the season heading into the bye week.
The Wildcats struggled out of the gate, taking on the second-ranked team in the country and dropping the match 8-1. Irene Squillaci and Jaclyn Walker won the only match for the Wildcats against BYU-Hawaii in the No. 1 doubles match, edging out a 9-8 victory. Squillaci won all her matches with the exception of her No. 1 singles match against BYU-Hawaii; she dropped that match in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4.
“I think we played pretty well, but I know we could have played much better than we did,” Squillaci said.
Despite the loss to BYU-Hawaii, ACU finished the weekend strong, dominating its final four opponents. The team recorded their fifth and sixth shutouts of the season against Dixie State and CSU-Pueblo. The women used 10 players in their five matches, which is why head coach Hutton Jones said they get to play so many.
“We are so deep; even if we have to go to plan B, it’s still a pretty good plan,” Jones said.
The women will play again in two weeks when they travel to Stillwater, Okla., to take on No. 73 Oklahoma State University – the third Division I opponent for the women this year.
While the women were busy winning four of their five matches, the men did even better by winning all five of their matches.
The men beat three nationally ranked opponents: No. 18 UC-San Diego, No. 27 BYU-Hawaii and No. 29. Hawaii-Hilo. ACU beat UC-San Diego, Hawaii-Hilo and Sonoma State all by the score of 7-2, while dispatching BYU-Hawaii 6-3 and Western New Mexico 8-1.
“We knew when we left it would be an intense weekend where we played a lot of matches, but it all just kind of clicked for us,” Juan Nuñez said.
With the 7-2 win, the Wildcats got revenge for a loss to UC-San Diego last year at the same competition, when they dropped a 6-3 decision to the Tritons. The Wildcats were 3-0 after a tough doubles round and continued to battle after a close match in singles play. The Wildcats won at the No. 1, 2, 3 and 5 singles matches and dropped the No. 4 and 6 singles, both in three sets.
“Last year, we were just a few match points away from taking the match, and we really felt like we had that one,” Jones said.
The rest of the weekend matches were more of the same, and the final score looked a lot easier than the individual matches themselves. Eight of the Wildcats’ singles matches ended up going three sets. The Wildcats walked away with three of those matches in the win column.
“The matches were all pretty hard-fought even though the final score makes it look so easy,” Jones said.
The men get back into match play next week when they take on five teams in three days. On Feb. 26, the Wildcats will face Austin Peay and Lipscomb when they travel to Nashville, Tenn., and travel to Kentucky to play against Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky and Northern Kentucky the next two days.
Jones said he thinks his teams are well on their way to competing at the level he feels could put them at the top of the national rankings.
“I am very happy with where we are right now heading into the off week,” he said.
