Over the weekend, the No. 68 Utah men’s tennis team (14-3) competed in two matches in the Rocky Mountains at the Stapleton Tennis Pavilion in Denver, Colo. On Friday, the Utes fell 5-1 to the home team, No. 48 Denver University, while on Saturday, they took care of business against Penn, winning 5-2.
Despite splitting the weekend matches, head coach Roeland Brateanu was pleased with the efforts of his team, who apparently haven’t been at full strength yet this season.
“The good thing is that we are slowly getting healthier. We still haven’t played one match this season with our strongest lineup,“ Brateanu said. “We’re getting better every match we’re playing — we’re getting that match rhythm that you just can’t practice.”
The Utes started strong Friday afternoon after No. 1 double pair Dan Little and Matt Cowley defeated DU’s David Fox and Alex Gasson, 7-5. Denver would respond, however, by winning the following two doubles matches by a score of 7-6, clinching the doubles points.
The Utes fell behind 3-0 early, after losing the No. 1 and No. 2 singles matches. Cowley was defeated by Henry Craig, 6-2, 6-1, while DU’s Dioga Rocha defeated the Utes’ David Micevski. In the second-to-last match of the afternoon, Utah’s fortunes seemed to turn for the better when Freddie McGeehan defeated DU’s Jesse Ruder-Hook 6-3, 6-4. However, McGeehan’s individual victory wasn’t enough to spark a late afternoon rally, as Utah’s Egbert Weverink fell 6-4, 6-3, to DU’s Yannik James, clinching Denver’s victory.
The Utes would not allow the defeat to deteriorate their focus, as the team returned the following afternoon to defeat No. 59 Penn, 5-2. Similar to Friday’s match, the Utes were victorious in just one out of the three doubles matches — Weverink and McGeehan defeated Penn’s Blaine Willenborg and Kyle Mautner, 6-3 — surrendering the doubles point to Penn.
First up for the Utes in singles play was Parker McGuinness in the No. 5 spot, who quickly tied up the score by defeating Nicholai Westergaard 6-3, 6-1. The Utes kept their momentum going, winning the next three matches — Little defeated Vim De Alwis 6-3, 6-2, Cowley was victorious over Mautner 6-3, 6-2, and Weverink beat Matt Nardella after three sets 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
In the No. 3 position, Micevski would fall to Penn’s Josh Pompan in a three-set thriller, 6-2, 5-7, 10-5. With the match score at 4-2 in Utah’s favor, McGeehan defeated Willenborg in another competitive three-set match, winning 6-3, 6-7 (4), 10-4. McGeehan’s victory would mark the end of a very successful day for the Utes.
“We are on track for the NCAA tournament. If we win our next two matches, we can go up in the rankings. Our goal is for sure to be in the top-40 of the rankings,” Micevski said. “We just need to go out there and compete and to do our best.”
The Utes will be returning to the Eccles Tennis Center in Salt Lake City to face UNLV on March 18.
“We will start preparing next week for the end of our season, for us, like it’s been all year long, we are fortunate enough that we are getting some bodies healthy and we are getting better by the match,” Brateanu said.
@ArmenMShrikian