Utah Men's Tennis Continues Pac-12 Play At Washington, #49 Oregon
FIRST SERVE
The Utah men's tennis team will continue its stretch of road Pac-12 matches this Friday, March 19 against the Washington Huskies. The Utes and Huskies will square off at 4 p.m. MT at Bill Quillian Tennis Stadium in Seattle. A live stream and live stats will be available here.
The Utes will then make the trip to Eugene, Ore. to play the No. 49-ranked Oregon Ducks on Sunday, March 21. Utah and Oregon will have the first serve come at 1 p.m. MT with a live stream available here and live stats here.
LEADING THE LINEUP
Utah has seen a team-high 10 dual wins from Geronimo Busleiman and Francisco Bastias, who are both new to the program this season. Busleiman has played primarily on court three, while Bastias has spent most of his time this season on court four. Both Utes hold a 10-6 record in spring play. Slava Shainyan comes in behind the duo with nine dual wins and holds a 7-3 record on court one. Meanwhile, Franco Capalbo has held down time in the second spot, as well as a few matches on court one, and has posted seven dual wins after playing in fewer matches.
BETTER TOGETHER
Utah's top doubles team of Franco Capalbo and Geronimo Busleiman have posted an 8-2 record so far this season in doubles action on court one. The winners of five straight, the Ute posted a win over the nation's No. 42-ranked duo from Denver a few weeks ago. Capalbo and Busleiman have won seven of their last eight matches. Coming to Salt Lake City with court experience together, Capalbo and Busleiman were doubles teammates during their junior careers and excelled as partners. The duo reached the semifinals of the Junior French Open and won the Grade 1 ITS in Canada leading up to the U.S. Open.
SCOUTING WASHINGTON
The Huskies come into the match 7-5 overall this season and are 0-2 in Pac-12 play. Washington dropped its Pac-12 openers to Arizona and Arizona State at the end of February, but are on a three-match winning streak from wins against Portland State, Gonzaga and Portland. Washington is led by Clement Chidekh who plays on the top court and holds a 11-1 overall record. No. 65-ranked Jack Davis plays primarily on court two and is 8-4 on the season. Washington's No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams are each 8-3 this year.
SCOUTING OREGON
No. 49 Oregon heads into the weekend 10-2 this season with the sole losses coming from ranked Pac-12 opponents Arizona State and Arizona. The Ducks have posted notable wins over BYU, Washington and New Mexico thus far in the season. No. 30-ranked Joshua Charlton and No. 76-ranked Emmanual Coste have gone back and forth between the top two positions where Charlton holds a 9-2 overall record and Coste sits at 8-1. Charlton and Brandon Lam have gone 6-0 on court one to lead the Ducks in doubles play.
LAST TIME OUT
The Utes played the ranked pair of Los Angeles schools last weekend, falling to No. 18 UCLA and No. 10 USC. Against UCLA, the Utes picked up the doubles point early on from wins by Francisco Bastias and Slava Shainyan on the top court, along with Geronimo Busleiman and Chris Heck on court three. Busleiman and Bastias took their matches to third sets, while Shainyan and Bruno Krenn reached tiebreakers in their second sets, but the Utes could not overcome the Bruins. Against USC, Utah fell in doubles although Shainyan/Bastias led the nation's No. 1-ranked duo 5-4 before the match was suspended. Utah battled the Trojans wire to wire, pushing two courts to three sets and two tiebreak sets, but it was not enough.
ROAD TO 100
Three-time ITA Mountain Region Coach of the Year Roeland Brateanu is in his seventh season as the head coach of Utah. After sweeping Boise State earlier this season, Brateanu reached 100 career wins at the helm of the program. Brateanu led the Utes to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2018 and 2019, No. 1 overall Mountain Region rankings, along with earning a spot in the final ITA/Oracle rankings in three of the last four seasons (excluding the shortened 2020 campaign). In his six seasons at the helm, he has seen the Utes collect 10 Pac-12 All-Conference selections and seven ITA Mountain Region end of year awards.
UP NEXT
Utah will begin a seven-match homestand as the regular season starts to wind down beginning Friday, March 26 against California at the George S. Eccles Tennis Center. Utah will then close out the weekend against Stanford on Sunday, March 28.