Utah men’s tennis’s very own Franco Capalbo earned the opportunity to compete in the ITA National Fall Championships over the weekend. The competition is a tournament that starts with a round of 32 players. The loser of the match goes into the consolation bracket. Capalbo went into the tournament playing great tennis, won the regional title and was the only Ute who managed to earn the main draw at the ITA National Fall Championships.

Opening tournament play, Capalbo’s first match was against Andrew Rodgers of Pepperdine. Capalbo opened strong and played a great first set. He won this set 6-4 and initially was playing high tempo solid tennis. However, things started to get away from Capalbo in the second set. Rogers managed to comport himself and won the set 6-3. In the third and final set Capalbo was unable to grab the momentum back and lost 6-1.

This loss moved Capalbo into the losers bracket and unfortunately Capalbo’s tournament ended tragically. In the midst of his match against Tad Maclean of Auburn, Capalbo suffered an injury and was forced to forfeit the match. Capalbo was losing 4-2 at the time of the injury, but it would be foolish to say he could not have won that much, especially if he had been 100% healthy.

Utah will be on the courts again on Nov. 11, where they will travel to Los Angeles to compete in the LMU Invitational.

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