SALT LAKE CITY — After qualifying for the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons, the University of Utah men’s tennis team didn’t have great expectations going into the 2020 season after losing several key players.
“We knew going in it was going to be a rebuilding year, not the way it was the last two years,” said coach Roeland Brateanu.
Still, the Utes played well with some top returning players from the previous year and had fashioned a 12-5 record when their season was shut down in early March.
“We knew this year was going to be a little bit challenging, but we were about where I thought we’d be wins and losses-wise,” Brateanu said. “We had four really close losses that were within reach, but the last match was not the way we wanted to finish the year.”
“We’re ahead of where we were four years ago if you compare these four-year cycles, so we’re excited about that.” — Utah men’s tennis coach Roeland Brateanu
That match was a home loss to in-state rival BYU after the Utes had won five straight matches, including a 4-3 win over No. 23-ranked Iowa. Before that, the Utes suffered close losses to Tulsa and Purdue in the ITA Kickoff tourney in Ohio in January before running off five straight wins. Then after a pair of 4-3 losses to New Mexico and Denver, they started another five-match winning streak before the season ended soon after the loss to BYU.
Leading the way for the Utes this season was Slava Shainyan, a senior from Russia who fashioned a 13-2 record mostly at No. 3 singles.
“We’ll miss Slava. He had an outstanding year, was our team MVP and a staple in our starting lineup for four years,” Brateanu said.
The only other senior on the team was Azat Hankuliyev, who grew up in Salt Lake and attended American Preparatory Academy. He had a 4-1 singles record and teamed with Shainyan to compile a 10-5 doubles record.
Franco Capalbo, a freshman from Argentina, played No. 1 most of the season with an 8-5 mark, while Russell Benkaim, a junior from Florida was 8-2 at No. 2 with an overall 10-6 record.
Other regulars were Mathias Gavelin, a sophomore from Sweden; Wally Thayne, a freshman from California; Randy Cory, a junior from California; and Paul McCallie, a sophomore from Atlanta. They will all be back along with Rian Ta and Rafael Grovas, a pair of freshmen who didn’t see much action this year.
Of the nine Pac-12 schools that play tennis, five were ranked in the top 30 in the nation when the season ended, led by USC at No. 1. Brateanu said his team might have had a chance to make the NCAA tourney again if it could beat Oregon and Washington at home, knock off one of the ranked Pac-12 schools on the road and play well in the Pac-12 tourney.
“Making the tournament was going to be a challenge,” he said.
For next year, the Utes have already signed Bruno Krenn, a five-star recruit from Southern California, and they expect to sign three or four more top players later this month.
“We’re loading up for this year and the year after and we’re excited about the recruiting class we have coming in,” Brateanu. “We’re ahead of where we were four years ago if you compare these four-year cycles, so we’re excited about that.”