Utah State and Utah Men’s Tennis Make the NCAA Tournament Field

Utah State and Utah Men’s Tennis Make the NCAA Tournament Field

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.-Tuesday, as the NCAA men’s tennis tournament field was released, Utah State and Utah discovered they were among those who made the cut.

The Aggies and Utes men are the only Division I tennis squads in Utah to make the field as no women’s teams were invited to compete in that bracket.

Utah State draws Texas Christian at a site, time and date yet to be announced, although Wake Forest, the ACC tournament champion and the overall #1 seed will host the event from the Sweet 16 onward, at Winston-Salem, N.C.

The Aggies are led by star senior Jaime Barajas, who became the first player in Utah State program history to be nationally ranked as a singles player in 2017. Nevertheless, they have a tough matchup in the #9 Horned Frogs.

TCU is one of the more consistent men’s programs in recent history as they have made four consecutive Final Fours and are led by star singles player, #19 ranked Alex Rybakov, as well as the dynamic doubles pair, Max Kurzban and Reese Stalder.

The Utes will face Oklahoma, also at a site, date and time yet to be determined and this will be no easy task as the Sooners are the #14 team in the land.

Utah, at 19-9 and ranked #38 nationally, made the field despite being eliminated from the PAC-12 tournament early, by Arizona. The Utes are led by star doubles squads Randy Cory and Russell Benkaim as well as Joe Woolley and Egbert Weverink, while Cory can also excel in singles play, despite only being a freshman.

Tbilisi, Georgia native Aleksandre Bakshi, a junior, is Oklahoma’s star as he is ranked 68th nationally in singles play.