The University of Utah men’s and women’s tennis teams continued their undefeated run this past week as the men moved to 8-0 on the year, beating Loyola Marymount and Texas Tech and the women moved to a program-best 7-0 as they beat Idaho State. 

Utah Women vs Idaho State

The Utah women faced off against Idaho State at home on Friday, Feb. 4. The matchday started with doubles as Utah’s Katya Hersh and Lindsay Hung got the first win of the day, beating Idaho State’s Alexandra Arkhipov and Megan Lang-Gould 6-1. 

The Utes continued their perfect form as Emily Dush and Anastasia Goncharova secured the doubles point beating sisters Sol and Lola O’Lideadha of Idaho State 6-1. 

Utah’s Linda Huang and Madison Tattini completed the doubles sweep as they won 6-4 against Idaho State’s Hana Cho and Leah Kuruvilla. 

With the doubles point in hand, the Lady Utes started singles on the right foot as Goncharova beat Sol O’Lideadha 6-1 and 6-0. The winning continued as Dush faced Lang-Gould and won 6-0 and 6-2, while Huang also won beating Cho 6-1 and 6-3.

Hung secured the singles point as she beat Lola O’Lideadha 6-4 and 6-0. The wins stopped there, however, as Hersh lost to Arkhipov 4-6 and 3-6. 

Utah’s Madeline Lamoreaux went three sets with Kuruvilla as Lamoreaux won the first set 6-1 and narrowly lost the second set 7-5. Lamoreaux fought hard but lost the third set to Kuruvilla as well 10-6. 

With the undefeated streak still intact and the best start in program history now secured, the 7-0 Utah women will look to extend their best start record and improve their win streak at home this Friday and Sunday. The Utes will face Washington State on Feb. 11 at 1:30 p.m. MST and then Minnesota at 9 a.m. on Feb. 13. 

Utah Men vs Loyola Marymount

The Utah men had a rematch on Friday, Feb. 4 with their opponent from last week, Loyola Marymount. The Utes won 4-3 in Los Angeles. This week, the Utah men were home and ready to make sure the score wasn’t close this time around. 

Bruno Caula and Francisco Bastias of Utah started the day right as they won their doubles match against Loyola Marymount’s Thien Nguyen and Daniel Moreno 6-4. Utes Franco Capablo and Geronimo Espin secured the doubles point beating Loyola Marymount’s John Otico and Charles Roberts 6-2. 

With the doubles point already in hand, Utah’s Jayson Blando and Mathias Gavelin had their match called against Rana-Roop Bhullar and Manoel De Alencar of Loyola Marymount. The score was 5-5 before the match went unfinished. 

The Utes got off to a sizzling singles start as Espin beat Otico 6-1 in both sets. The wins didn’t stop there as Bastias faced Bhullar and won 6-2 and 6-0, Capalbo beat Alencar 6-1 and 6-2, and Caula won a close game 6-2 and 7-6(4) against Marymount’s Dane Esses, securing the singles point for Utah. 

The final two matches saw Gavelin win 7-5 and 6-3 against Marymount’s Arthur Pantino, and the only loss of the day came at the hands of Blando as Moreno beat him 3-6 and 5-7. 

Utah Men vs Texas Tech

After cruising to 7-0 against Loyola Marymount, the Utah men looked towards 8-0 as they faced Texas Tech at home on Feb. 6 at noon. 

Bastias and Caula started with a win for the Utes as they beat Texas Tech’s Dimitrios Azoidis and Piotr Pawlak 6-2. However, Texas Tech tied it up in the next match as Tech’s Franco Ribero and Ilgiz Valiev beat Gavelin and Blando 2-6. 

Tied 1-1, it was up to Capalbo and Espin to clutch up and secure the point and that’s exactly what they did. The Utah duo beat Texas Tech’s Issac Arevalo and Reed Collier 7-5. 

With the doubles point in hand, the Utes swept singles as Espin beat Tech’s Olle Wallin 6-2 and 6-3, Bastias faced Valiev and won 6-3 in both sets, and Capalbo won against Arevalo 6-3 and 6-2. The other three matches went unfinished due to the point already being secured. 

The Utah men moved to 8-0 on the year with the win over Texas Tech and don’t look like slowing down anytime soon. The Utes will be home again this week when they face Gonzaga on Feb. 12 at 9 a.m. and Boise State on Feb. 13 at noon. 

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