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Show GOING HOME BY DOMINIC GARCIA /STAFF WRITER PHOTO BY CHRIS SAMUELS U tah will be in Los Angeles this weekend to take on two of the better teams in the Pac-12, No. 1 UCLA and No. 23 USC. For most of the team, it's just going to be another pair of road games, but for six specific Utes, it will be a chance to return home. The majority of the team is homegrown in Utah, but there are some players who come from other parts of the country.The second most represented state on the team is California with six Utes hailing from the Golden State — freshman Cabria Turang, sophomore Taylor Slattery, juniors Kaycee Buckley, Lindsey Luke and Nykell Seymour and senior Darby Broeker. "We're always really excited to get down there': said head coach Rich Manning. "Anytime we go somewhere players can go home and play in front of their friends and family is speci' With the busy life of a student-athlete, players don't get to head home very often. For some athletes, the chance to return to their home state comes only once a year and can last from a week to a month. Luke tries to get back twice a year, once for Thanksgiving or Christmas and again some time in May. The trip to California will be extra special for the goalkeeper, as she will get to see her family and old friends while celebrating her 22nd birthday. Luke doesn't have anything special planned for her big day because Utah will be playing USC, but she still hopes to celebrate by earning a victory. "Hopefully we walk away with a win:' Luke said. "That would be a great present:' It's not only players who are getting a chance to see family and friends when the Utes hit the road. Manning grew up in Los Angeles and went to school at Santa Clara. He hopes to see some support in favor of Utah from family and friends of his own. "I'm [from] an Irish family:' Manning said. "A lot of cousins, a lot of aunts and uncles and my parents. We'll be fine:' Even though the homecoming will be nice for some of the Utes, there is still business to be taken care of on the field. Utah players from California know the soccer community well and have some connections to the two opponents. "I have a teammate who plays for UCLA:' Seymour said. "She's a forward. So her friends and my friends will be there." Manning also has ties to UCLA. He and Bruin assistant Joshua Walters used to run camps together when Walters was an assistant at Utah State. Despite technically being home for some of the team, Manning and the Utes will still be the "bad guys" during games against the Bruins and Trojans. "Being on the other side when you have friends at those schools that come and watch — it's a little like that:' Manning said. Utah will need every bit of support it can get against the top-ranked schools over the weekend.The first game against UCLA is scheduled for kickoff on Friday at 9 p.m. MT. d.garcia@chronicle.utah.edu @dominic2295 8 { THECHRONY I NEWS I OPINION I ARTS I SPORTS I THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2 2014 } Women's tennis team makes a 'rape I BY IAN SMITH /STAFF WRITER he Utah women's tennis team made a strong showing last weekend at the Colorado Invitational in Boulder. The Utes — competing against five other teams — got in a large quantity of matches. The team had 33 total singles matches played and was victorious in well over half of them. "I feel like overall it was good because we were looking for a lot of match play," said head coach Mat landolo. The four-day tournament saw a consistent flow of momentum that helped carry Utah. Day one was fairly successful, as the team gathered six victories to kick off the season. In doubles match play, competing against a duo from Southern Illinois, freshman Jena Cheng and senior Elena Najera-Salas came out on top 6-2. Fellow freshman Victoria Robertson and junior Alexia Petrovic followed that win with a victory of their own, 6-4. The singles bracket also went well for the Utes on day one as they had two matches go their way. Petrovic kept the momentum from her doubles victory when she bested Elly Fryberger of Arkansas 7-6(3), 6-0. Her partner for the doubles, Robertson, also won her singles match 6-3, 6-2. On day two, Utah kept up the momentum by picking up another seven victories. "I expected that we would win a lot of matches," he said. "I thought, relative to the competition there, even without two of our best, I felt that we were as good of a team as any." The Utes doubles play continued to be stellar when Najera-Salas and Cheng remained unbeaten, along with the duo of Robertson and Petrovic. Even the pair of Luisa Gerstner Da Rosa and Sarah Richter, who lost their previous doubles matches, picked up a victory against a duo from Arkansas. "I'm pleased, because even where we didn't win matches, we definitely learned about each individual, [which] gave us valuable insight on what we need to work on," landolo said. On day three, both Da Rosa and Robertson advanced to the black draw final for singles. Da Rosa won her match against Sharon Coone of New Mexico, and Robertson beat Nicole Wellman of Liberty to set up a showdown between Utes. Also seeing success for Utah on day three was Richter, who secured a spot in the gold draw final by beating Maria Khval of Liberty. The final day of competition saw a lot of Utes in action. Leading the way was Da Rosa, who claimed the black draw title over her teammate Robertson in the 7-6(3), 6-2. Richter, however, did not come away with a victory as she fell 6-2, 6-1 to Colorado's Julyette Steur in the No. 1 bracket. landolo said this tournament was critical for the freshman to get real-time college athletic experience. Being without two of the team's best players, the head coach said there was plenty of good match play, and the team improved a lot during the tournament. "I kind of hand-selected that tournament," landolo said. "I knew that if we played halfway decently, we would win a lot of matches. It was a good start. Even though everyone didn't have incredible results, we learned a lot about each player, and we'll transfer those lessons to practice." Despite seeing a lot of success, landolo is hoping to see a little more consistency out of his squad throughout the rest of the season. "I feel like in a few matches we had some breakdowns [on] the consistency of the basic elements," he said. While all the other Utes have the upcoming weekend off, senior Tereza Bekerova will be hard at work. Bekerova, who missed the Colorado Invitational, will compete in the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships at the Riviera Tennis Club. "I am very happy for Tereza," landolo said in a press release. "It is good for our team and her personally to have her compete in the main draw of the biggest college tournament of the fall." i.smith@chronicle.utah.edu @ISmithAtTheU RECRUITING THE UTES GRIFFIN ,4. ADAMS t's been a slow climb, but the Utes are undoubtedly starting to reap the benefits of being a part of the Pac-12. In the last couple of days, the Utah football program has picked up a number of recruits, including a couple from high school state powerhouse Florida. Every season since they've joined the conference, the Utes have played the part of a Power 5 school more and more with each passing year. They've opened up a new football facility, recorded a signature conference win (last year vs. Stanford) and, maybe the most impressive of them all, started to make headway in recruiting. The freshman class of 2014 has already seen a good mix of athletes from all over the country. Louisiana, Florida and Texas are just a few of the states that Utah has been able to snag recruits from. Not only are those states traditional juggernauts when it comes to high school football, but they are also in heavy-SEC territory.The Utes were able to not only improve their own program, but also the Pac-12 as a whole, by directing those southern state recruits out West. If a college football team can't recruit well, the program will suffer. Utah saw the effects of this when they first joined the conference. It looked inferior against nearly every conference foe in its first season in the Conference of Champions. But with each passing year, the Utes are looking more and more like a Pac-12 squad and less like a punching bag. While out-of-state recruiting has improved, Utah's in-state recruiting has taken a hit. The Utes have been striking out when trying to get the Beehive State's best football players. Utah has missed out on the last four No. 1 prospects in the state of Utah, including this 2015 class. It was close last year when former Bingham tight end Dalton Schultz was considering his home state school, but in the end, the Utes lost out to Pac-12 opponent, Stanford. That said, Utah hardly ever gets the state's highestrated recruits, as they are typically good enough to go to some of the biggest programs in the nation, such as Alabama (Cooper Bateman) and Stanford (Schultz). However, the Utes are losing out on a ton of middle-of- the-pack recruits to the team down south, BYU. Let's be honest, a three-star recruit from Florida is probably better than a three-star recruit from Utah, so the fact that the Utes are branching out and nabbing recruits from the big states is impressive. But while Utah continues to reach across the nation, they seem to be losing ground to BYU and others on their home turf. With that said, the recruiting has been good and bad for the Utes in recent years. Good, because of the wide scope that Utah has set on the nation. Bad, because the improvements made in the entire program still are not good enough to keep the top recruits in Utah at home. The question then becomes which is more important for the Utes — getting the top recruits in the state and potentially the country or getting a large quantity of good, but not great, athletes from anywhere they can get them? In my opinion, the latter is of more importance, and I think Utah is in agreement, evidenced by the slow and steady improvement across the board every season. g.adams@chronicle.utah.edu @GriffDoug |