Men's Tennis Welcomes No. 27 Arizona State, No. 20 Arizona To Close Out Pac-12 Play

FIRST SERVE
Utah men's tennis will close out regular season Pac-12 play this weekend at the George S. Eccles Tennis Center hosting the No. 27-ranked Arizona State Sun Devils and No. 20-ranked Arizona Wildcats. Utah will open the weekend against Arizona State this Friday, Apr. 9, with the first serve in Salt Lake City at 12 p.m. MT. The Utes will then have its final conference match of the regular season against Arizona on Sunday, Apr. 11, which will also begin at 12 p.m. MT.

Live results for both matches can be found here, while a live stream will be available here. Fans will be allowed to come to the Eccles Tennis Center if the matches are to be played outside. For temperatures below 50 degrees, matches will be held inside. 
  
LEADING THE LINEUP
Freshman Franco Capalbo has won five-straight matches, including a win over No. 65-ranked Jack Davis of Washington to start the winning streak. During the run, Capalbo has collected victories over opponents from Stanford, San Diego State, Montana State and Nevada as well. He has a team-best singles record of 12-3 this season with six wins coming from court one, along with six on court two. Capalbo is also tied for the second-most doubles wins with nine on the season. He has the best singles win percentage on the team and has the second-best win percentage in doubles play.

DOUBLING UP
Geronimo Busleiman has been crucial to Utah's doubles play this season, and holds a team-best 14-7 record. He holds the most wins in doubles play by five and has a team-high .667 win percentage. Busleiman has paired with Franco Capalbo where the duo has posted an 8-4 record on court one, while he has also played with Chris Heck and Mathias Gavelin. Busleiman and Heck have totaled three wins, while he has earned three with Gavelin.

SCOUTING ARIZONA STATE
The Sun Devils are 13-6 this season and have dropped three straight matches heading into the weekend - two of which were narrow 4-3 losses. Arizona State has posted notable wins over then-No. 28 Oklahoma and No. 50 Tulsa, along with No. 22 Pepperdine early on in the season. Four of the squad's six losses have come at the hands of ranked teams. No. 92-ranked Nathan Ponwith leads the charge on the top court and is 12-5 overall, 11-5 on court one.
 
SCOUTING ARIZONA
Arizona holds a 17-5 overall record and is 4-1 in Pac-12 play. Four of the five losses have come against ranked opponents, including three top-10 teams at the time. The Wildcats downed then-No. 15 USC and No. 22 UCLA a couple weeks ago, but are coming off a loss to Stanford last weekend. Arizona had a stretch of 13-consecutive wins spanning from the end of January through mid-March. Gustaf Strom paces the team and is ranked No. 15 in the ITA/Oracle Singles poll. Strom holds a 14-1 overall record with a 9-0 record on court three. Jonas Ziverts holds the top spot in singles primarily for Arizona and is ranked No. 63.

LAST TIME OUT
The Utes have posted four-straight wins as the team took a pause from Pac-12 play and competed against San Diego State, Montana State, Nevada and UC Davis. Utah first picked up a 5-2 win over San Diego State, which was followed by a 6-1 victory over Montana State in the doubleheader last week. The Utes then hit the road and took a 4-3 road win at Nevada and then swept UC Davis 4-0. Franco Capalbo went 3-0 on the top court in the four singles matches, with the other match going unfinished although he was up a set. Geronimo Busleiman also went 3-0 with his last singles match unfinished and up a set as well. He was also 4-0 in doubles play to guide the Utes.
 
UP NEXT
Utah will host San Francisco next Thursday, Apr. 15 in Salt Lake City before heading down south to face in-state rivals BYU on Saturday, Apr. 17. Utah will play San Francisco in Salt Lake City at 12 p.m. MT, while the match against the Cougars in Provo will start at 2 p.m. MT.