The Utah men’s tennis team competed in Albuquerque, New Mexico last weekend, and after dropping the first match to New Mexico, the Utes rebounded and picked up wins in their last two matches over DePaul and New Mexico State.
Utah started off the action on Friday against New Mexico. The host school proved its dominance on its home court by taking down the Utes 7-0. Utah’s doubles pairs of Egbert Weverink/Santiago Sierra and Parker McGuiness/Johan Jonhagen fell 6-2 and 6-3, respectively, to the Lobos.
New Mexico continued to build off the early lead, as it also won each of the matches in singles play. Utah’s Matt Cowley was able to force a third set in his matchup, but it wasn’t enough to complete the comeback.
“I think we played one of our worst matches against New Mexico,” said Utah head coach Roeland Brateanu. “But New Mexico played a good match and was the better team that day.”
It was a tough way to start the weekend, but Utah improved upon its opening performance as the weekend went on. Utah showed its resiliency the following day against DePaul and New Mexico State.
“We showed some poise and resiliency the next day,” Brateanu said. “We came away with a couple of wins.”
In Utah’s action on Saturday, it was clearly the more dominant team. Utah’s No.1 and No. 2 doubles pairs won both of their matches. Cowley and Dan Little won the No. 1 matchup 7-5, while Jamey Swiggart and McGuiness secured the doubles point for Utah by winning 7-6 (4).
In singles, Cowley won 6-4, 6-4, and David Micevski proved too much for his opponent in his win of 6-1, 6-1. Little also picked up a victory with his 6-3, 6-4 win. The wins trickled all the way down to the No. 4 position, as Weverink won 6-3, 7-5. Add all these performances together and it equaled a 7-0 Utah sweep over DePaul.
In Utah’s final matchup over the weekend against New Mexico State, it was more of the same. Utah swept the match 7-0.
Cowley and Little sealed the doubles point for the Utes, as they won the No. 1 matchup 7-6 (4). Utah’s singles players, yet again, were dominant as they won nearly every matchup in straight sets.
“Each and every match provides us something new to learn from which to grow and develop,” Cowley said. “We respect the process of development and every aspect therein. The road ahead will be long and challenging, no doubt. Nonetheless, we are most fortunate to have our road paved with bumps and imperfections. These temporary setbacks are opportunities to progress, improve and make adjustments. Victory is only as sweet as the pain that you feel after defeat.”
Although the Utes had a less-than-ideal start, they quickly corrected their mistakes and came away with a 2-1 record for the weekend. That said, the loss was one Utah wasn’t anticipating.
“The loss puts us a little behind our goals,” Brateanu said. “All we can do is learn from it and move on.”
Utah will be back in action this weekend in Denver, Colo. with matches against Denver and Penn.
@brock_jensen02