Utah gets by Broncos 4-2

Sunday, February 13

Salt Lake City, Utah

12 p.m. MT

Boise State

Utah

2/13/2022 4:53:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Marquardt and Minakata led Boise State with singles victories.

By: Courtesy: Boise State Athletics

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Boise State men's tennis came up short Sunday afternoon in Salt Lake City as the Utah Utes edged out the Broncos 4-2. Jan Lucca Marquardt and Ryo Minakata led Boise State, recording singles victories versus the Utes.

"Incredibly tough match today. It was on a razor's edge margin the entire time starting with doubles," said Boise State Head Coach Beck Roghaar. "We came up just short in the end, but I was really pleased with the way we bounced back. I thought we started competing right away in singles and put ourselves in position to win. You know, I think overall the growth of this team over the past few weeks has been phenomenal. I have no doubt that we're going to be on the right side of these types of matches in the future."

The Utes won a tightly contested doubles point in which two of the matches went to tiebreakers. The decisive contest came down to No. 2 doubles where Marquardt and James Van Herzeele were just short in a tiebreaker 7-6(5) to Utah's Francisco Bastias and Bruno Cole.

The No. 3 doubles tandem of Michael Bott and Minakata were leading 4-1 in their tiebreaker when the contest was abandoned once Utah clinched the team point.

Marquardt tied the match up at 1-1 when he cruised to a straight-set victory 6-3, 6-2 over Bruno Caula at No. 4 singles. It was the junior's 10th singles win of the season and second of the weekend.

After Utah had rallied to reclaim the lead with wins at No. 2 and 3 singles to go up 3-1. Boise State cut its deficit to one at 3-2 following Minakata's victory on court six where the junior took on Utah's Jayson Blando, handing him a dominating 6-3, 6-2 defeat.

The decisive point came on court one, where Franco Capalbo rallied in the second set to beat Bronco freshman Pedro Liborio 6-4, 6-4 to clinch the team victory for Utah.

On the weekend, the Blue and Orange earned a road split with a big win Friday at previously unbeaten BYU (2-1) followed by today's tough loss at Utah (10-0). Boise State, which returns home with a 5-5 overall record, will take the next two weeks off before returning to action the weekend of March 4-6 when it will host a three-match homestand.

Match Box Score
Utah (10-0) def. Boise State (5-5) 4-2
2/13/2022 at Salt Lake City, Utah (George S. Eccles Tennis Center)

Doubles (Order of Finish: 1,2)
1. Capalbo/Espin (UTAH) def. Arca Costas/Moortgat (BSU) 6-3
2. Bastias/Caula (UTAH) def. Marquardt/Van Herzeele (BSU) 7-6 (7-5)
3. Gavelin/Blando (UTAH) vs. Bott/Minakata (BSU) 6-6 (1-4) DNF

Singles (Order of Finish: 4,2,3,6,1)
1. Franco Capalbo (UTAH) def. Pedro Liborio (BSU) 6-4, 6-4
2. Francisco Bastias (UTAH) def. Simon Arca Costas (BSU) 6-2, 6-4
3. Geronimo Espin (UTAH) def. Caden Moortgat (BSU) 6-4, 6-2
4. Jan Lucca Marquardt (BSU) def. Bruno Caula (UTAH) 6-3, 6-2
5. Mathias Gavelin (UTAH) vs. James Van Herzeele (BSU) 6-3, 4-6, 2-1 DNF
6. Ryo Minakata (BSU) def. Jayson Blando (UTAH) 6-3, 6-2