Utah Men’s Tennis Finish on Top as the Women Fall in the Semi’s
Utah mens’ tennis player and University of Utah freshman Geronimo Busleiman plays during an NCAA dual meet against the Idaho State Bengals at the George Eccles Tennis Center in Salt Lake City on Jan. 30, 2021. (Abu Asib | The Daily Utah Chronicle)
October 18, 2022
The Utah men’s and women’s tennis teams competed in the ITA Mountain Regional Championships this past weekend, a mix of disappointment and encouragement summarizing the Utes’ performance in the tournament.
Utah Men – ITA Regionals
Last weekend the Utah men’s tennis team traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico as they looked to make a statement in the ITA Mountain Regional Championships after underachieving in the season-opening tournament. The Utes participated in both the singles and doubles draws with Geronimo Espin Busleiman representing the U in singles while the duo of Berk Bugarikj and Patrik Trhac repped the U in doubles.
At last year’s ITA tournament, second-year Franco Capalbo won the singles draw and this year the Utah men retained that title as Espin Busleiman beat Utah State’s David Cierny in the final match 6-3, 6-3. For the doubles draw, Bugarikj and Trhac faced Idaho’s Francisco Bascon and Matteo Masala in a close three-set match where the Utes came out on top 4-6, 6-2 and 10-3. This is the first time since 2009 that the Utah men have won the doubles draw in this tournament and it has been 20 years since the team has won both the doubles and singles draws.
This result will be a massive boost to the team going forward and to the players who participated in this tournament since their results qualify them for the ITA National Fall Championships in November. Next up on the schedule for the team is the second Utah Invite, hosted by the University of Utah from Oct. 21-23.
Utah Women – ITA Regionals
The Lady Utes were in Las Vegas this past weekend where they participated in the ITA Mountain Regional Championships after earning a 3rd and 4th place finish in the Barb Chandler Classic a few weeks ago. The dynamic duo of Madison Tattini and Anastasia Goncharova participated in the doubles draw while freshman Kaila Barksdale repped the U in the singles draw and Marcela Lopez played in the consolation draw.
Starting with duos, the 3rd-seeded Utes faced off in the semifinals against rival school BYU’s Yujia Huang and Emilee Astle where they lost in straight sets 5-7 and 2-6. For the singles draw, 9th-seed Barksdale faced off against the top-seeded Molly Helgesson in the semifinals and lost in a three-set match 7-5, 6-7 and 3-6. Luckily, Lopez was able to deliver a positive result in straight sets as she beat Zara Lennon of Colorado State University 6-4, 6-1.
Head Coach Ric Mortera expressed his disappointment in the results but also came away with some positives. “We got better this week,” Mortera said. “In certain facets, we definitely didn’t execute to the level we expected of ourselves, but this was a good experience for us, and we will continue to get better. We are very much looking forward to getting back to Salt Lake and getting back to work.”
The Lady Utes will look to bounce back in the Texas A&M Fall Invitational which will be held from Oct. 21-23.
