Tennis shut out by No. 3 Ohio State
January 30, 2007
Photo by Amy McCaslin.
Andy Kuharszky, here in a photo taken last weekend vs. Eastern, was defeated against OSU’s Devin Mullings this weekend in Columbus.
After its match against No. 3 Ohio State this weekend, the University of Washington men's tennis team now completely understands why its opponent has climbed so high in the rankings. The UW, ranked 18th in the International Tennis Association's latest rankings, was blanked 7-0 by Ohio State.
Ohio State was especially dominant in doubles, sweeping all three matches without allowing the UW so much as a service break.
"Doubles was not good today," said junior co-captain Andy Kuharszky. "I felt like I couldn't execute what I had been working on in practice."
Washington came a little closer in singles, but nobody managed to come out on top. Senior Alex Slovic, playing at No. 1 singles, served for the first set but couldn't close it out, losing the match 7-6, 6-2. At No. 2 singles, senior Daniel Chu was unable to match up with Ohio State's Steven Moneke [HTML_REMOVED] the number-one player in the nation [HTML_REMOVED] losing 6-2, 7-5.
"We had some opportunities, but they outplayed us," said coach Matt Anger. "They were definitely more solid today."
Serve and return were two elements of the game that Anger felt were particularly weak for the UW in this weekend's match.
"We didn't serve well," he said. "Without the serve we had to try to go toe-to-toe with them from the baseline, and they were too strong. We have the potential to be a good serving team, but we need to be able to do it day in and day out, especially against ranked teams."
The Huskies will need to rise to this potential in the coming weeks as they prepare to host the Great Northwest Shootout from Feb. 9-11, an event in which they will face ranked teams such as No. 29 Louisville and No. 31 Middle Tennessee.
Anger hopes that his players will come out of this loss even more determined to capitalize on their potential.
"Individually, different players had their positive moments," he said. "It was a good experience for us to have gone through."
The UW returns home to host Brigham Young University on Feb. 6 at 3 p.m., a match that will receive national television coverage on the Tennis Channel.
Reach reporter Risa Pavia at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.
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