Utes fall to San Francisco 4-3

Sunday, February 10

San Francisco, Calif.

10:00 AM

University of Utah

San Francisco

2/12/2008 12:00 AM | Men's Tennis

Feb. 11, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - The University of Utah men's tennis team (70) ended their three day road stint on a low note on Sunday, falling to San Francisco 4-3. The Utes pulled out the doubles point, before San Francisco turned up the heat to overturn Utah.

Zach Ganger and Miron Mann teamed up at the No. 1 spot to slide by with a 9-7 win over Falko Huettenberger and Asaf Cohen. At the No. 2 spot, Jason Smits and Othman Zerouali-Ouariti defeated Mitch Del Rosario and Ching for an 8-6 victory. Wes Hancock and Timmy Allin finished up the wins with an 8-6 victory over Rainer NachBauer and Thong Tu at the No. 3 spot.

The Utes were 1-0 as they headed into singles play. Wes Hancock finished up first at the No. 3 spot with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Nachbauer. At the No. 4 spot, Smits took on Einar Hart for a 6-2, 6-3 win, giving Utah a 3-0 lead.

Mann finished up next at the No. 2 spot against Cohen from San Francisco. The Ute missed several easy balls, causing a 6-3, 6-4 loss. Ganger stepped in at the No. 1 spot to face Tu. He fell 6-4 in the first half and tried to come back in the second set, but was unable to outthink his opponent. Ganger ended the match with a 6-4, 7-6(4) loss to Tu.

At the No. 6 spot, Allin faced Del Rosario for a battle. Del Rosario took the first set 7-5, followed by a strong 6-0 domination in the second set from Allin. In the third set, Allin was up twice at break, but was unable to hold on. Del Rosario took the set and match at 7-5, 0-6, 6-4.

With the Utes tied 3-3 with San Francisco, it was all on Zerouali-Ouariti. The Ute was up 5-1 in the first set, but Huettenberger came back to take the set at 7-5. In the second set, Zerouali-Ouariti came back to take the second set at 6-4 and send them into a tie breaker. By the third set, Allin had just lost, causing the Ute's nerves to spike. He tried to play through it and set up his points, but wasn't able to control the match in the end. Huettenberger took the set and match at 7-5, 4-6, 7-5.

Thoughts from assistant coach Roeland Brateanu:
"The loss against the University of San Francisco concludes a rough road trip with three very closes losses. We had chances against every single opponent and should have pulled out at least one of them. These were our first matches at sea level and outdoors and we gradually improved throughout our trip. Nevertheless, at this time we are an under-achieving team and we need to go back to the drawing board to see what we can do to get wins. We are right there, but we manage to give away matches while we really should pull them out. We now have ten days to get things straightened out. Hopefully this trip was a good learning experience for this team and hopefully we can carry this experience with us throughout the rest of the season."

San Francisco 4, #70 Utah 3Singles:1. Thong Tu (USF) def. Zach Ganger (Utah); 6-4, 7-6(4)2. Asaf Cohen (USF) def. Miron Mann (Utah); 6-3 6-43. Wes Hancock (Utah) def. Rainer Nachbauer (USF); 6-2, 6-14. Jason Smits (Utah) def. Einar Hart (USF); 6-2, 6-35. Falko Huettenberger (USF) def. Othman Zerouali-Ouariti (Utah); 7-5, 4-6, 7-56. Mitch Del Rosario (USF) def. Timmy Allin (Utah); 7-5, 0-6, 6-4
Doubles:1. Ganger/Mann (Utah) def. Huettenberger/Cohen (USF); 9-72. Smits/Zerouali-Ouariti (Utah) def. Del Rosario/Ching (USF); 8-63. Hancock/Allin (Utah) def. Nachbauer/Tu (USF); 8-6