SALT LAKE CITY — It's been a long time since the Utah women's tennis team has won any sort of championship.
That last time it happened, coach Mat Iandolo was about to graduate from Weber State, the Utes belonged to a conference that most folks have never heard of, and none of the current team members were even alive.
You have to go back to 1983 to find the last time the Ute women hoisted a championship trophy when they won the now-defunct High Country Athletic Conference.
While the Utes had some good teams in the 1990s when current assistant coach Ruth Ann (Stevens) Allen played, they haven't come close to winning for over a decade. And they weren't expected to win this year, coming off a sixth-place finish a year ago.
However, the Utes blitzed though the Mountain West Conference this spring, beating every team in the league to finish on top with a perfect 8-0 record.
"It's been so fun to be a part of this," said Erin Monson, a Skyline High graduate and one of two seniors on the team. "We always thought we could do it, but to actually do it is a whole different thing. Beating (MWC favorite) UNLV in one of our first conference matches was huge because we realized we were capable of winning it all."
The Utes may not be the most talented bunch of players in the MWC, but Iandolo, who came to Utah after coaching at Purdue for 16 years, has gotten his players to work hard and embrace the team concept to the max. Iandolo has molded a diverse group that includes a couple of players from Russia, one from Ireland, one from California and two from Utah among the top six.
"We've recruited the talent here," he said. "But we build confidence through working hard and bringing a sense of purpose to practice every day."
The players give their coaches a lot of the credit for their mindset on the court and say their closeness as a team helps them help each other to succeed.
"Mat brought more experience to the program," said senior Andrea Maughan of Ireland, who has been in the program for four years. "We're a lot closer and have bonded a lot more. We're good friends off the court."
"He's taught us how to win, even if we're not playing our best," adds Monson. "That's the way he coaches us. We all fight. No one's going to give up. Everyone's going to give it everything they have."
Anastasia Putalina, a sophomore who plays No. 1 for the Utes, is one of two Russian players on the team along with Evgenia Kryuchkova and one of several dozen Russians who dot the women's college landscape. She said tennis is the biggest women's sport in Russia, due in part to the success of professional tennis players going back a couple of decades and continuing with such players as Anna Kournikova, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Putalina has loved her experience at Utah and credits the coaches and a close-knit team for the MWC title this year.
"Winning conference is definitely a highlight," Putalina said. "It's all about coaches. They taught us how to win and play well and how to behave on the court. We are all very close to each other and we all wanted it."
Iandolo came to Utah in 2007, looking for a change after 16 years in West Lafayette, Ind. He knew about the potential for the Utah program from his days at Weber State and calls former Utah men's tennis coach Harry James one of his idols.
He was determined to build his team with local talent and was happy to get Monson when she decided to transfer from Utah State. He added Paige Miles from Juan Diego High this year and has signed Ashley Tanner of Alta for next year. But he'll continue to keep foreign players in the program.
"I like having the international influence on the program for sure," Iandolo said. "My model is to get the best players from the state of Utah to come here, but we recruit California hard and recruit internationally."
Kryuchkova, Utah's No. 2 player, is 25-12 in singles play and currently has a 13-match winning streak. Sophomore Lisa Johnson of San Diego is 17-5, playing primarily at No. 5, while Maughan, who plays No. 6, is 20-10 on the year.
The Utes will try to earn the automatic NCAA berth this week by winning the MWC tournament this week in Las Vegas. However, Iandolo feels the Utes could earn an at-large berth because of their No. 39 ranking in the country, even if they don't win this week.
The Utes will take on the winner of the 8 vs. 9 match between Colorado State and New Mexico on Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Fertita Tennis Complex on the UNLV campus. Semifinal matches will be Friday at 2 p.m. with the finals set for Saturday at 2.
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