Utah Utes' tennis star enjoys stellar senior season
This week, the Utes are heading to Fort Worth, Texas, where they hope to capture the MWC Tournament championship and the automatic NCAA berth that goes with it.
A big reason for the Utes' success of late has been the outstanding play of senior captain Zach Ganger.
Ganger (rhymes with anger) went unbeaten in Mountain West Conference play in both singles and doubles, beating higher-ranked opponents along the way. After a slow start to his season, Ganger has won nine straight matches at No. 1 singles and nine straight doubles matches to put himself in position to be the MWC player of the year.
"It wouldn't make sense to give it to anybody else," said Utah coach F.D. Robbins.
Not only has Ganger been winning everything lately, he's been winning convincingly. Of his nine consecutive singles victories, eight have been straight sets, by scores such as 6-2, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-1. When he knocked off the No. 36-ranked player in the country, TCU's Cosmin Cotet, he lost just five games in two sets.
Ganger is a native of Jacksonville, Fla., who relies on a strong serve-and-volley game. He came out west four years ago to follow in the footsteps of his uncle, John Tsumas, who played for Utah in the early 1980s and coached the Utah women's team for 15 years.
"We used to come out here every year to ski and we'd stay and watch the women's and men's teams play," Ganger said. "It was one school where I liked both of the coaches and all of the guys on the team. It seemed like their own little fraternity. We're the best of friends, every guy on the team."
That's what makes this year's championship so satisfying. The Utes hung together after losing their opening league match to run off five straight victories.
After losing to New Mexico in Albuquerque, the Utes defeated Air Force and San Diego State and headed into Provo for three matches in three days — to save on travel costs, MWC tennis teams play three matches each of two different sites and rotate every year.
The Utes beat UNLV and unbeaten TCU, both by 4-3 margins, and had to beat BYU to grab a share of the MWC title. Ganger took care of his opponent 6-4, 6-0 and, with the team score tied 3-3, it came down to one match.
Everyone gathered around the court to watch as the Utes' No. 2 player, senior Miron Mann — Ganger's doubles' partner — defeated BYU's Thomas Schubert 7-5, 6-4.
Recent comments
Great story about a great tennis player.
Utah fan | April 22, 2008 at 8:40 p.m.
