The Seattle U men's tennis team lost a tough matchup with the University of Utah Thursday. The Utes, ranked 59th in the nation, took down the Redhawks 7-0 at the Eccles Tennis Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, and swept every set played between the two teams.
The Redhawks hung tough with Utah in the doubles competition, but ended up losing all three matches to concede the doubles point. At number two doubles, the SU duo of Kevin Lynch (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Jason Bediones (Kent, Wash.) took five points before falling to Alejandro Medinilla and Ace Matias 8-5.
At number ones doubles, Mark Shkrebtan (Redmond, Wash.) and Simon Meske (Tacoma, Wash.) took on Utah's top team of Benito Suriano and Dmytro Mamedov. The SU pair won four points, but lost the match 8-4. Also, Tom Plunkett (Seattle, Wash.) and Flavio Malagutti (Rio Claro, Brazil) fell in the third doubles position 8-3 to the Utes' Devin Lane and Slim Hamza.
The Redhawks couldn't compete as well in singles matches, however. The closest singles contest came in the fourth position where Malagutti took five games from Utah's Lane, but fell anyways 6-3, 6-2.
The Utes clinched the match when Utah's Davidian took down SU's Kyle Rapp (Encinitas, Calif.) in straight sets, 6-3, 6-0.
The Redhawks look to bounce back from the loss Friday, March 2, when they take on Weber State in Ogden, Utah. The match starts at 8:00 a.m. Pacific time.
University of Utah 7, Seattle University 0
Doubles
Suriano/Mamedov (UTAH) defeat Shkrebtan/Meske (SEA) 8-4
Medinilla/Matias (UTAH) defeat Lynch/Bediones (SEA) 8-5
Hamza/Lane (UTAH) defeat Plunkett/Malagutti (SEA) 8-3
Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles
Dmytro Mamedov (UTAH) defeats Mark Shkrebtan (SEA) 6-0, 6-1
Benito Suriano (UTAH) defeats Simon Meske (SEA) 6-1, 6-1
Slim Hamza (UTAH) defeats Kevin Lynch (SEA) 6-0, 6-2
Devin Lane (UTAH) defeats Flavio Malagutti (SEA) 6-3, 6-2
Ace Matias (UTAH) defeats Yusuke Kanehira (SEA) 6-1, 6-1
Rafael Davidian (UTAH) defeats Kyle Rapp (SEA) 6-3, 6-0
Order of Finish: 5, 1, 3, 6, 4, 2