Jan. 20, 2006

Utah State's men's tennis team beat Northern Arizona 4-3 here on Friday. The Aggies gained their first win of the season and improved to 1-2.

Utah State went down 0-1 early in the match as they dropped all three doubles matches. The Aggies bounced back and came out strong in singles play claiming four of the six matches. Johannes Zelle took the No. 1 match defeating Henrik Lilja 7-5, 7-5. Senior, Joao Pinho, won at the No. 2 spot defeating Casey Ross 7-5, 6-4.

Other Aggies to win included Dantley Young at No. 4 and freshman, Bryan Marchant, at No. 5.

"All the way through we had excellent effort, everyone contributed and played their best," said coach Christian Wright. "We stayed focused the whole time and no one got discouraged. I am proud of the team as a whole. Everyone went out and fought hard."

The Aggies head next to Salt Lake City on January 27 to play Utah. The match will start at 5 p.m.

UTAH STATE 4, NORTHERN ARIZONA 3

Doubles:

# 1- Gareth Ducray and Henrik Lilja (NAU) def. Johannes Zelle and Dantley Young 8-4

# 2- Jeffrey Morys and Casey Ross (NAU) def. Jonas Tyden and Bryan Marchant 9-8

# 3- Trent Hayward and Thieme (NAU) def. Joao Pinho and Lukas Bouton 8-2

Singles:

# 1- Johannes Zelle (USU) def. Henrik Lilja 7-5, 7-5

# 2- Joao Pinho (USU) def. Casey Ross 7-5, 6-4

# 3- Jeffrey Morys (NAU) def. JJ Netto 6-3, 6-4

# 4- Dantley Young (USU) def. Gareth Ducray 4-6, 7-6, 6-3

# 5- Bryan Marchant (USU) def. Brian Grooms 6-1, 7-6, (8-6)

# 6- Trent Hayward (NAU) def. Jonas Tyden 7-6, 4-6, 1-6