Despite all the adversity that the Utah men’s tennis team has experienced this year, head coach Roeland Brateanu remains positive and realistic following a tough weekend outing in Southern California.
“The last two weekends, we just played teams that were better than us. Here at our home site, we just got to back to our winning ways from before Pac-12 play,” said Brateanu.
In a year full of challenges, including the devastating loss of team captain Slim Hamza, who was forced into retirement in March due to a significant knee injury, the Utes returned from their latest trip to Southern California still seeking their first victory in Pac-12 play after being swept by conference juggernauts UCLA and USC.
Last year, Hamza delivered the highlight of the season in an electrifying defeat of the Trojans’ Raymond Sarmiento, then the seventh-ranked player in the nation, at the first singles position, 6-0, 6-2. However, the Utes ultimately lost that matchup, and they were hoping to turn it around in 2015.
But with Hamza unavailable to repeat his historic performance from the year before, the Utes were blanked across the board, falling 7-0 to seventh-ranked USC on Friday in Los Angeles.
The Trojans quickly grabbed the doubles point at the first and third positions, and then mopped up the match with six-straight singles victories. The best-of-seven match was sealed at 4-0 when Ute freshman Johan Jonhagen was bested by USC’s Nick Crystal at the fifth singles spot, 6-0, 6-1.
There was no reprieve for the Utes on Saturday when they crossed town to meet No. 15 UCLA. The Bruins won in similar fashion to USC, grabbing the doubles point with wins at the first and third position before sweeping the singles points, effectively shutting Utah out with a 7-0 victory in a game that was televised on the Pac-12 Network.
For freshman Freddie McGeehan, it still was an exhilarating experience, despite not being able to get the win.
“In terms of getting there, to play against those guys in that big arena, it was great to be on TV as well,” McGeehan said. “In terms of our development, it was great for us.”
Elaborating on both losses, Brateanu said, “Very simply, we played two teams that were just better than us. We played probably two of the most storied programs in college tennis history. There’s no shame in going there and losing. We learned a lot of tough lessons but I think we got better over the weekend.”
After playing their last six matches on the road, with alternating trips to Northern and Southern California, the Utes return home for the first time since March 13 to play host to Washington. Despite dropping five of six matches on the road trip, Brateanu felt that the trip was a success for the young squad.
“Personally, I like the travel,” Brateanu said. “To get the team on the road is a great bonding experience to get together out there. We had great weather, great outdoor tennis.”
The Utes are coming home to finish off Pac-12 play after dropping four straight in a gauntlet of the upper conference tier of Stanford, California, USC and UCLA — all of whom are undefeated in conference duel matches. The Utes will finish off the year against Washington, Oregon and Arizona — who along with Utah, create the lower tier in the conference schism, all being winless in conference play.
“It’s good to get the number four teams in the conference out of the way,” Brateanu said. “Confidence-wise we would like to get a little more confidence going into those games, but it is what it is.”
The match with Washington will begin at 4 p.m. MT on Friday at the George S. Eccles Tennis Center.
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