Utah Utes' tennis star enjoys stellar senior season

When the Utah men's tennis team knocked off BYU in Provo nine days ago, it gave the Utes a share of the Mountain West Conference championship, the first league title for the Utes in nearly two decades.

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.

"Zach has been the rock," said Robbins. "Over the course of his career, he's learned to stay calm under pressure. When he was young, he would get upset, and now he's kind of a seasoned veteran. He's a lot more mature at handling the pressure."

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.