The Utah men’s tennis team made history on Saturday by beating Montana (0-1) 7-0 and Montana State (0-4) 6-1 to improve to 9-0, setting the school record for the best start to a season.
“I’m very proud of the guys,” said head coach Roeland Brateanu. “We’ve put in a lot of work, we’ve had a lot of things go wrong, but the guys have fought through and worked hard, and here we are, 9-0.”
Freshman Dan Little echoed his coach’s sentiments regarding the team’s hot start to the campaign.
“It’s been pretty amazing, the start to the season,” Little said. “We had a lot of confidence before in the team, we’re a really strong team, really deep team. I haven’t been playing, a few of us have been injured, and we’ve managed to get through, which is great.”
In the first match of the weekend, Utah rolled over Montana on Saturday morning in the Grizzlies’ first match of the season. Egbert Weverink and Santiago Sierra easily beat Montana’s Yannick Schmidl and Alexander Canellopoulos on the No. 2 court, 6-2, while sophomore and freshman duo Johan Jonhagen and David Micevski continued their winning ways by defeating the Grizzlies’ Tomasz Soltyka and Victor Casadevall at the No. 3 position, 6-3, to earn the doubles play point.
The Utes kept their foot on the gas in singles play, not allowing the Grizzlies to win a single set throughout. Micevski and Canellopoulos’s match finished first, a 6-2, 6-2 rout of the Grizzly freshman from Greece. Meanwhile, Weverink dominated Peter Mimnagh-Fleming, a junior from Ireland, 6-3, 6-2.
Little, the Utes’ star freshman, returned from injury today, getting the nod for the No. 1 spot in place of Matt Cowley, who is out with a back injury.
“It felt so good to be back out on court,” Little said. “I was a bit nervous at the start, but I was expecting that. Overall, it was such a good experience to be back out there and contribute to the team.”
Little made the most of his opportunity, beating Montana senior Semion Branzburg 6-3, 6-4 to put the Utes up 4-0, and put the nail in the Grizzlies’ coffin.
Utah and Montana elected to keep playing, and the Utes’ shutout of the Grizz continued. Jamey Swiggart defeated Soltyka at the No. 4 spot in the closest match of the afternoon, 6-4, 6-4. Jonhagen continues to dominate in singles play, as he beat Casadevall 6-3, 6-3 on the No. 6 court, and Sierra conquered Schmidl for the second time, winning 6-3, 6-2.
Utah played a near-perfect match, winning every position to secure the 7-0 sweep.
Around four hours later, the Utes took on the Bobcats of Montana State in the second match of the doubleheader. Once again, Utah controlled the doubles point, starting with Sierra and Weverink defeating Rok Sitar and Kellen Bates 6-3. Jonhagen and Miceviski secured a win by an identical score on Court No. 3, winning the doubles point for the Utes.
Jonhagen continued his overall trend of finishing matches fast in singles play, finishing first after beating Harvala 6-1, 6-2. Teammate Swiggart made quick work of Charlie Edgecombe, winning 6-4, 6-2. Weverink sealed the victory for Utah after he beat Alexander Flink 7-5, 6-1 to give the Utes a 4-0 lead.
Harry James earned Montana State’s only point of the day after beating McGuiness 6-4, 3-6, 10-8. The third set was played in a first to 10 points, with a win by two format to save time.
Little could only go for one match in his comeback from injury, so Micevski got his first start at the No. 1 singles slot postion. Micevski, giving his first-ever interview in English with The Utah Chronicle, was a little nervous before the match.
“In the beginning, I was kind of nervous,” Micevski said. “I didn’t want to disappoint my coaches and my teammates. I was kind of shaky at the beginning, but then I started playing better.”
Micevski overcame the shaky start to defeat Kellen Bates, 6-3, 7-5 on the No. 1 court.
“I could have finished by a bigger margin,” Micevski said. “Of course, beating the best player on their team is a good thing. It raises my confidence.”
The Utes welcome Boise State to Eccles Tennis Center on Friday at 5 p.m., followed by South Alabama on Saturday, at 1:30 p.m. MST.
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