Aggies defeat Fresno State in first matchup of sibling coaches
They went to bed on Saturday night as brothers. When they woke up Sunday morning, though, the battle was on.
The Utah State University men’s tennis team defeated the Fresno State Bulldogs 4-0 in the first head-to-head matchup pitting Aggie head coach Clancy Shields and his older brother Luke Shields, who is the Bulldogs’ head coach.
The Colorado natives were both star tennis players at Boise State University. This is Luke Shield’s first year as head coach for the Bulldogs and Clancy Shield’s third year as head coach for the Aggies.
Luke Shields, who stayed over at his brother’s house on Saturday night, graduated from Boise State in 2008 and was an assistant tennis coach for two seasons –– coaching his younger brother who graduated in 2010. Clancy Shields was also an assistant coach at Boise State –– coaching for four seasons after graduating.
Clancy and Luke Shields sat side-by-side to exchange lineups for the first time prior to the match. After the Aggies grabbed the victory, the brothers discussed the outcome and had nothing but high regards for each other.
“It was fun. They are going to be one of the top teams in the conference next year, I know it,” Clancy Shields said. ”He’s a really good coach. He was my coach, so I know how good he is.”
“Clancy has built that program up,” Luke Shields said. “He’s doing a great job with that team because they are the toughest team in the conference right now.”
With the win, Utah State improved to 5-0 in the Mountain West Conference. The Aggies are 15-1 when winning the doubles point this season, as they did in this matchup.
“It was very competitive, especially in doubles play,” Clancy Shields said. “They realized they had to win doubles to beat us today.”
Clancy and Luke Shields said there was added motivation for their players to play harder against each other's team. However, the brothers teach their players to play every point like it’s their last.
In singles play, Aggie freshman Jonas Maier defeated Bulldog freshman Mantas Bugailiskis 6-4, 6-1 at the No. 2 spot to put the Aggies up 2-0.
“The other team kind of gave up because our energy was awesome and we won the first few sets really quick,” Maier said.
Aggie freshman Romai Ugarte defeated Bulldog sophomore Jakob Keppelmann 6-1, 6-1 at the No. 6 spot to put the Aggies up 3-0. Shortly after, Aggie freshman Luis Lopez clinched the match by defeating Bulldog sophomore Youssef Hassan 7-5, 6-2 at the No. 5 spot.
“Right after I finished my match and Luis finished his, all of the tension was released,” Ugarte said.
Although the sibling rivalry added a little intensity to the match, Clancy Shields said, “our guys have a greater goal than the match we are playing today. We are on a mission to win the championship this year.”
The Aggies will take on UNLV on Friday at 11 a.m. Mountain time in their last home match of the season.