University of Utah tennis is back in season! After historic seasons last year, the Utes are back, looking to make history once more. This last weekend of September, the men’s and women’s teams participated in their first fall tournaments of the year with the women playing in Boise, Idaho, and the men playing in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 

Barb Chandler Classic

The Utah women traveled to Boise to participate in the Barb Chandler Classic, where they earned a 4th place finish after losing in the 3rd place match to Montana. Katya Hersh was the star of the weekend as she accumulated two singles wins including one in the 3rd place match.

The Utah women come into this season with the 9th best-recruiting class in the nation while retaining much of their roster from last year, including Anastasia Goncharova and Madison Tattini. With their historic start but rather disappointing end to the spring season last year, the Lady Utes will look to replicate that historic start and cap it off with a strong finish as the season gets underway.

Next up on the schedule was the 15k Hilton Head and the USD Intercollegiate Invitational.

ITA Bedford Cup in the Mountains

The Utah men made their way to Colorado Springs over the weekend as they participated in the ITA Bedford Cup in the Mountains where they took part in doubles and singles consolation brackets.

The team had a solid spring season getting consistent results and doing fairly well in the postseason, but they will look to achieve better results in the games that matter most as the fall season gets underway. The Utah men followed this up with a busy double-header tournament weekend as they hosted the Utah Invitational #1 and participated in the DAR Walters Invitational in Boise.

Spring Season Recap

Last season both the men and women’s teams made history, smashing the previous records for the best starts in their respective program’s history.

For the Lady Utes, their undefeated streak lasted 5 weeks while the men’s streak lasted 8 weeks, and though at the time it seemed as if both teams were a bullet train without brakes, that wasn’t ultimately the case as they ran out of gas and sputtered their way into the postseason Pac-12 Championships. To make matters worse, once they reached the tournament, they didn’t make their stay long as the men were knocked out in the first round and the women were knocked out in the second.

Hopefully, with time to look back and reflect on what went wrong, Utah tennis can go into this season rejuvenated and ready to right the wrongs from last time out.

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