Bobcats Fall 4-3 in Hard-Fought Battle

Sunday, March 28

BOZEMAN

10 a.m.

Montana State University

Weber State

Freshman Mirte Van Baelen

Photo by: UM Sports Information

3/28/2021 4:26:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

Weber State’s Pei-Hsuan Kuo fought off three match points in a third set tiebreaker to lift the Wildcats to a 4-3 win over Montana State on Sunday afternoon in the Bobcat-Anderson Tennis Center in non-conference action

By: Tom Schulz

Weber State's Pei-Hsuan Kuo fought off three match points in a third set tiebreaker to lift the Wildcats to a 4-3 win over Montana State on Sunday afternoon in the Bobcat-Anderson Tennis Center in non-conference action.

Weber State (4-9) opened the match taking the doubles point with wins at Nos. 1 and 2.

"We didn't play a good doubles point," said MSU head coach Jon Reeves. "That hurt, it always does, and we were coming off a great doubles point at Boise State."

Montana State (1-7) freshman Mirte Van Baelen quickly evened the match opening singles play with a convincing 6-3, 6-2 decision over Yuuna Ukita. Due to an injury to its top player, Laura Mary, the Bobcats moved all players up a spot on the ladder. It was Van Baelen's first contest at the No. 1 singles position.

The Wildcats went ahead 2-1 as Megan Davies posted a 6-2, 6-4 win over Jazmin Lerman at No. 4 singles, but the Bobcats answered taking the next two singles contests to take a 3-2 match advantage. Senior Enni Zander won a 7-5, 7-6(2) decision at No. 3, before Felicia Jayasaputra followed with a come-from-behind 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 win over Ana Morett Salas.

"I'm really proud of our effort," Reeves said. "If I would have known coming in here somebody would've said we were going to win the three (singles) without Laura, that's just a really, really good effort. And, the interesting thing is that they all did it in different ways.

"Enni is just straight up guts," Reeves added. "To her, it's about competing and winning. She just figures out a way to get it done."

Weber State tied the match at three-all as Sicely Ferreira downed Evi Buijsen 6-0, 6-1, to setup the deciding match at No. 5 singles between MSU's JJ Chen and WSU's Kuo.

Chen, a product of Adelaide, Australia opened with a 6-3 first set victory. Kuo responded with a 6-1 decision in the second set, but again, Chen took control getting out to a 4-1 advantage in the third set. Kuo fought back to put the frame into a tiebreaker.

With Chen leading 6-4, Kuo fought off two match points and took her first advantage at 7-6 serving for the victory. A Kuo double fault evened the tiebreaker at 7-all, and another Chen winner gave MSU its third match point. However, Kuo closed out the match with three consecutive points.

"We had people step up," Reeves said. "We gave ourselves a good opportunity to win. We were right there in the mix."

The Bobcats will host Montana on April 4.

Weber State 4, Montana State 3

Singles: