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Men's Tennis Advances to the Second Round of NCAA Championships

by Utah Athletics
May 6, 2022

FORT WORTH – For the second time in school history, the Utah men's tennis team earned an NCAA Men's Tennis National Championships victory. The Utes defeated No. 32 Ole Miss, 4-2, as Francisco Bastias clinched the win for the Utes.
 
The Rebels of Ole Miss took an early lead in doubles as they won No. 3 doubles, 6-2. Utah continued to battle in the match as the No. 27 doubles team of Franco Capalbo, and Geronimo Espin Busleiman defeated No. 19 Finn Reynolds and Lukas Engelhardt, 6-3. However, the doubles point went to Ole Miss as they won No. 2 doubles, 7-5.
 
Utah tied the match when Espin Busleiman, the 107th ranked ITA singles player, came away with a 6-2, 6-1 victory. The match went to 2-2 after Simon Junk defeated Mathias Gavelin in No. 5 singles, and Bruno Krenn earned a hard-fought three-set win. Krenn dropped the first set to Jakob Cadonau before bouncing back to win 6-4, forcing a third set. In the third set, Krenn earned a 6-2 victory.
 
The Utes took a 3-2 lead after Bruno Caula earned a victory in No. 4 singles. Caula won the first set 6-4. In a back and forth set, Caula and Lukas Engelhardt found themselves tied at 6-6. In the tiebreaker, Caula found himself 5-1. However, Caula bounced back and won the tiebreaker 8-6 and the match 6-4, 7-6 (6).
 

Utah needed need to win one of the final two matches to win the match, and the top two matches were in a third set. Francisco Bastias dropped his first set, 7-5, but answered back for a 7-5 second set win. In the third set, Bastias continued to cruise as he came away with a 6-3 victory, clinching the Utes' win.
 
In No. 1 singles, Franco Capalbo dropped his first set 7-6 (3) before bouncing back for a second set win, 6-4. In the third set, Capalbo was leading 2-1, but the match went unfinished.

 
#37 UTAH 4, #32 OLE MISS 2
Singles (3,6,5,4,2)
Franco Capalbo (UTAH) vs. #14 Nikola Slavic (Ole Miss), 6-7, 6-4, 2-1 unfinished
Francisco Bastias (UTAH) def. Finn Reynolds (Ole Miss), 5-7, 7-5, 6-3
#107 Geronimo Espin Busleiman (UTAH) def. J. Hallquist Lithen (Ole Miss), 6-2, 6-1
Bruno Caula (UTAH) def. Lukas Engelhardt (Ole Miss), 6-4, 7-6 (6)
Simon Junk (Ole Miss) def. Mathias Gavelin (UTAH), 4-6, 6-2, 6-0
Bruno Krenn (UTAH) def. Jakob Cadonau (Ole Miss), 2-6, 6-4, 6-2
 
Doubles (3,1,2)
#27 Franco Capalbo/Geronimo Espin Busleiman (UTAH) def. #19 Finn Reynolds/Lukas Engelhardt (Ole Miss), 6-3
Simon Junk/Jan Soren Hain (Ole Miss) def. Francisco Bastias/Bruno Caula (UTAH), 7-5
Hallquist Lithen/Nikola Slavic (Ole Miss) def. Jayson Blando/Mathias Gavelin (UTAH), 6-2
 
UP NEXT
The Utes return to action on Saturday when they take on the winner of TCU/Drake in the second round of the NCAA Men's Tennis National Championships. The first serve is set for 3 p.m. MT. The match will be played at the Beyhard H. Friedman Tennis Center on the TCU campus.
 
FOLLOW THE UTES!
Fans can follow along during the 2022 season on social media (Twitter: @UtahTennis | Instagram: @UtahTennis | Facebook: Facebook.com/Utahmenstennis).

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