The U men’s tennis team finished its Las Vegas trip to the Mountain West Conference Championships in fourth place.
Following an impressive first- round win over UNLV, 4-3, the Utes could not get past San Diego State, losing 4-0 (in the MWCs, once a team has won four matches, the other matches are then stopped immediately, as there is no reason to continue them because a winner is already determined).
The Utes never won a matchup against the Aztecs this season. They lost 7-0 against SDSU in Salt Lake City earlier this year.
San Diego State went on to beat BYU 4-1 in the title match to claim the MWC Championship.
In the consolation game afterward, the Utes could not overtake the New Mexico Lobos, and lost 4-3. U assistant coach Graeme Cox said the Utes were disappointed to lose to the Lobos.
“Everybody thought we should have beaten them,” he said. “[New Mexico] just rose to the occasion and won. It’s a little disappointing, but at least we held our [fourth place] seed.”
Against SDSU, David Mercier and Nik Yip, who defeated the Aztecs’ Oliver Maiberger and Ryan Redondo, ranked No. 3 in the nation, earlier this year, could not make it two in a row, as they lost 8-6. Daniel Lohff and Corrie Scheepers lost to Travis Hasson and Gabe Coren 8-6, giving SDSU the doubles point.
Scheepers, Lohff and Yip were then defeated in singles play, giving the match to SDSU. No other ongoing matches were completed.
Against New Mexico, Mercier defeated Michael Polasek 6-4, 7-6 at the No. 1 position; Scheepers beat David Kowalski 6-4, 6-1; Tyler Poulson beat Diego Garza 7-6, 6-4. But those were the only wins the Utes could get.
Yip, Lohff and Daniel Carlsson lost their singles matches. The Utes also lost the doubles point, losing two of three matches.