The Utah men’s tennis team improved to 3-0 this weekend with decisive victories over the Hawaii Warriors and Sacramento State Hornets. The wins mark the first time in over 35 years that the Utes won their first three road matches of the season.
“To go 3-0 on the road and to do something no Utah team has done in so long is pretty special,” said head coach Roeland Brateanu. “This is a pretty special group of guys and, despite the many injuries, this is a great start of our season.”
On Sunday afternoon in Honolulu, Utah defeated the Warriors on their home court, 4-0.
“Congrats to the boys for an outstanding battle today [Sunday],” Brateanu said. “We knew Hawaii was a very good team, and we are very fortunate to come up with a win today.”
Utah started off the match by winning a very competitive doubles point. At the No. 1 doubles spot, Santiago Sierra and Egbert Weverink lost their second straight doubles match of the season, falling to the Warriors’ Kai Wehnelt and Felix Albert 5-7.
But Utah rallied to win the two remaining doubles matches to pull out the doubles point. Matt Cowley and Jamey Swiggart won their second straight doubles match for the Utes at the No. 2 spot, beating Hawaii’s Marcel Chan and Nikolai Storch 7-5. At the No. 3 spot, Johan Jonhagen and David Micevski clinched the doubles points for the Utes, squeezing out the win against the duo of Igor Kolaric and Joakim Pinola, 7-6 (5). With the win, Jonhagen and Micevski improve to 2-0 in doubles play on the season.
In singles play, the Utes dominated Hawaii, winning every singles match. At the No. 4 singles slot, Swiggart defeated Kolaric 6-2, 6-2 for his first singles victory of the spring season. At No. 5 singles, Jonhagen beat the Warriors’ Ruben Blattner, 6-1, 6-3, to pick up his second singles victory of the spring campaign. After Sierra finished off Storch, 6-3, 6-4, improving Sierra’s record to 2-0 in singles play, the Utes were up 4-0, and the No. 1, 2 and 3 singles matches were stopped because Hawaii had no chance of winning the competition, even if they won all three remaining matches.
Less than 24 hours after they started their match against Hawaii, the Utes were back on the court in Honolulu to face Sacramento State.
In doubles, it looked like the Utes would lose their first point of the year. The Hornets’ Mikus Losbergs and Kasparas Zemaitelis handed Weverink their third straight loss at the No. 1 doubles spot, 6-2. But Jonhagen and Micevski beat Sacramento State’s Uli Vollath and Christopher Clayton 6-4, and the doubles point came down to the No. 2 slot. Cowley and Swiggart overcame two match points from the Hornets’ Joaquin Marquez and Dom Miller to win 7-6 (2), and clinched the doubles point for Utah.
Once again, the Utes dominated in singles play. Sacramento State’s Losbergs beat Utah’s Cowley 6-2, 6-2 to register the Hornets’ only point in the competition. Swiggart won his second straight singles match, beating Joaquin Marquez 6-4, 6-3 to put the Utes back up 2-1. Sierra kept his unbeaten streak in singles play alive by beating Dom Miller 6-4, 6-1 to put Utah up 3-1. Weverink put the Hornets away after beating Marquez 6-4, 6-3.
The Utes are back in Salt Lake City this weekend for their home opener. Utah faces off against Nevada on Jan. 24. The match will start at 10 a.m. MST.
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