by Mark Watson
SPORTS EDITOR
Tooele's third singles player Eric Gutowski is starting to pick up steam heading into the Buffs' final two dual matches this week and the Region 7 tournament next week.
Gutowski won two of his three matches last week with victories over a Payson opponent and a major come-from-behind win over Provo High's No. 3 singles player.
"Our highest seedings at the region tournament should be at number one and number three singles," said coach Derek Smith.
Matt Wihongi plays first singles for the Buffs and is a close friend of Gutowski. The pair battle each other in tennis matches and work together on their games during the summer.
Tooele faced Mountain View on Tuesday, Payson on Wednesday and Provo on Thursday last week and it was a roller-coaster ride according to the coach with his players looking flawless at times and full of flaws at other times.
"If they give their best and get beat by a stronger opponent that's fine. But if they don't give it all they've got and lose to an opponent they could beat, that's not good," Smith said.
On Tuesday, Mountain View blitzed the Buffs 5-0. Tooele's closest shot at a victory came at No. 1 doubles where Jordan Knighton and Russell Johnson regrouped after the first set to win the second set, but the tandem could not prevail and dropped the match 2-6, 6-4, 3-6.
Wihongi and Gutowski played better in their second sets against their Mountain View opponents, but dropped their matches. Jorge Encinas defeated Wihongi 6-3, 7-5 and Adam Lewis downed Gutowski 6-2, 6-3.
Tooele won all its matches against Payson. Wihongi, Dylan King, Gutowski, Gaven Neufeld, Jake Wells and Chase Lambert all won singles matches.
Knighton and Johnson prevailed at first doubles with Austin Jasper and Austin Jensen winning at second doubles. Jonathan Cafe and Jaii Knighton also won a doubles match.
Gutowski won the only match against Provo, but it did not start out good for the third singles player. Gutowski needed to regroup after a first set loss to win the match 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 over Nate Gates.
Wihongi lost to Carter Nix 6-3, 7-6.
Tooele plays at Orem today, hosts Timpview on Thursday and then competes in the region tournament May 8-9 at Mountain View.
mwatson@tooeletranscript.com