The Utah men’s tennis team traveled to Provo to face off against BYU and came back home with a win, beating the Cougars 4-2. This improves the Utes’ overall record to 8-5 on the season.
Head coach Roeland Brateanu said he was proud of his team pulling through, despite losing their best player, Slim Hanza, to injury.
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“I thought it was our best team effort of the year,” Brateanu said. “For us to come out with a win, it’s huge for the guys and I’m very excited for them. It just shows that all the hard work we’ve put in is starting to pay off.”
Utah’s Freddie McGeehan said the win was extremely satisfying, especially over BYU.
“Great win overall, all playing against the rival without our home fans,” McGeehan said.
After the duos of Cedric Willems and Matt Cowley and then Parker McGuiness and Jamey Swiggart won their matches in double play, the Utes stole the doubles point and had the early advantage over the Cougars.
In singles play, Willems and Cowley – two staples on this Utah team – both dropped their matches in the No. 1 and 3 spots respectively, giving the Cougars two points. To make up for it, both McGuiness and McGeehan both won their matches, giving the Utes a 3-2 edge and just a point away from clinching the match.
McGeehan needed three sets to put away his BYU opponent, and wasn’t pleased with his performance, despite getting the win.
“I had a tough match, I didn’t play my best,” McGeehan said. “But I had to dig deep and find a way to fight and get a point for the team.”
In the No. 4 singles slot, Johan Jonhagen defeated BYU’s Aidan Carrazedo in three sets to seal the deal, giving Utah the win. It’s also worth noting that Ute Santiago Sierra was about to put his Cougar counterpart away (6-4, 5-4) in the No. 5 spot before Jonhagen clinched the match and play was stopped.
McGuiness said this win is a big confidence booster.
“The atmosphere was crazy,” McGuiness said. “But the guys on the team stepped up, even though we didn’t really have a lot of support, we did our job last night.”
While each individual player did his part in this one, Brateanu was impressed with the team effort that was collevtively put forth in Provo.
“It’s the biggest win of the year,” Brateanu said. “It’s nice to be undefeated in the state of Utah again for the second year in a row. For our program, with as many new guys as we have to come up with a win down there is a very nice thing for the future.”
After “the biggest win of the year,” the team decided to get some celebratory In-N-Out and soak in the moment.
“We just hung out at each other’s places,” McGuiness said. “We’re so happy with the win and I’ve never seen [Brateanu] so happy.”
Brateanu mentioned how this was the first time any single player on the team traveled down south to play in hostile territory against BYU and he could not be any happier with how they represented the school.
“We did a great job conserving our energy and fighting,” Brateanu said. “And we did it in a classy, respectful manner and to be in that environment and carry ourselves in that way was just a really nice thing to see.”
The team will now return home to face New Mexico on March 13 at the Eccles Tennis Center.
“We need to focus on training, work hard, realize what our goals are,” McGeehan said. “Try to focus on the next match and not dwell on this one. It’s a great win, but we got big matches coming up over spring break to make NCAA’s.”
@kbrenneisen