A loss to build on

The Weber State University Women’s Tennis Team got off to a quick lead against Montana State Friday afternoon only to lose a close one 3-4 at the Ogden Athletic Club falling to 0-2 in conference play.
WSU won the doubles point 2-1. Caroline Drugge and Brittiny Moore won their match 8-3 in the number two position. Keya Jenkins and Kassia Adamson won their match 8-1 at number three.
“On two and three we played extremely well,” said Coach Jonas Ehrlin. “We won the doubles point pretty handedly.”
WSU brought that energy into the singles matches but it went away pretty quickly. Leading in the first set in most of the matches, things looked promising.
“We got off to a good start and won our doubles point and the top four singles players were all up in the first sets,” Elsje Beneke said, “but we were not able to pull it through.”
Greyce Farias has one explanation why the match went the way it did.
“Elsje and I started off OK. It was just little details that (Montana State) took advantage of,” she said. “My confidence came back to me, my strokes were working. I was mixing it up a lot with drop shots and coming to the net. After (winning the first set 6-3) I’m not going to lie, I did get tired.”
Erhlin agreed with Farias but said he doesn’t want to use that as an excuse.
“The way she plays you know she is going to be out there for a couple of hours,” he said. “They really are long points so she probably did get tired. So did (her opponent). She just has to learn to play through that.”
Beneke had her own issue to deal with.
“I can’t pull out any excuses, but if it wasn’t for a lack of patience, the score might have been a little different,” she said. “I guess it’s a work in progress.”
Weather it is a lack of patience or fatigue, the women’s tennis team said they know what they need to do to improve. Over the course of the season, they have improved every week.
“There was a lot of things to feel good about, except not winning,” Erhlin said. “It was fun to watch for a long time. I think we got a little tight and lost focus on a couple of matches. We just have to learn how to play with the lead. It’s like double bogeying on the 18th hole.”
Moore won her singles match 6-3, 6-4. Adamson won her singles match 6-0, 7-6.
Their next conference match is next Friday against Eastern Washington at 10 am.
“We know we can win, it’s just matter of putting them together,” Ehrlin said. “Once we pull out a match and show ourselves that we can do it, it’s weird how our confidence grows after that.”