WINSTON-SALEM, NC – No. 68 BYU men's tennis dropped a tough match 4-0 against No. 1 Wake Forest at the ITA Kickoff Weekend Friday evening.

“It was a great opportunity and experience to play the No. 1 team and for Sean [Hill] to play the No. 1 player in the country,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “He played the kind of tennis we’ve seen him play on a daily basis to take the first set, so I couldn’t be more proud of him. We didn’t play as well as I would have liked in doubles, but I loved the way we bounced back and played much better at every position in singles. We’re looking forward to playing No. 37 Old Dominion tomorrow, who we have at home on March 2.”

Despite the effort, the Cougars (3-2) dropped the doubles point to the Demon Deacons (4-0). Melios Efstathiou and Siddhant Banthia earned a 6-2 win over Mateo Vereau Melendez and Matthew Pearce in the No. 3 spot. In the No. 1 spot, Petros Chrysochos and Bar Botzer defeated No. 19 Sean Hill and Jeffrey Hsu, 6-2.

The No. 2 doubles match between BYU’s Sam Tullis and Ben Gajardo and Wake Forest’s Julian Zlobinsky and Alan Gadjiev was suspended at 1-5.

Moving into singles, the Demon Deacons claimed the next three wins. Zlobinsky earned the first singles point for the evening against BYU’s Vinicius Feijao Nogueira 6-4, 6-2, in the No. 6 spot. In No. 3 singles, Yuval Solomon of Wake Forest topped Vereau 7-6, 6-4, despite Vereau bringing the first set to a tiebreaker.

Despite hard efforts in the first set, BYU’s Sam Tullis fell to No. 39 Efstathiou in a close 7-6, 6-2, match at the No. 3 spot, bringing the dual match to a close with the final score of 4-0 for Wake Forest.

In the No. 1 spot, Hill faced off against No. 1 Chrysochos and managed to take set one, 7-6, despite the match being suspended.

The Cougars remain in North Carolina to face No. 37 Old Dominion on Saturday, Jan. 26, at 2 p.m. EDT. Live stats are available on the schedule page.

MATCH RESULTS

WAKE FOREST 4, BYU 0

DOUBLES RESULTS

1. Bar Botzer/Petros Chrysochos (WF) def. #19 Sean Hill/Jeffrey Hsu (BYU) 6-1
2. Alan Gadjiev/Julian Zlobinsky (WF) vs. Ben Gajardo/Sam Tullis (BYU) 5-1, unfinished
3. Siddhant Banthia/Melios Efstathiou (WF) def. Mateo Vereau/Matthew Pearce (BYU) 6-2

Order of finish: (3, 1)

SINGLES RESULTS

1. #1 Petros Chrysochos (WF) vs. Sean Hill (BYU) 6-7 (6-8), 4-2, unfinished
2. #25 Bar Botzer (WF) vs. Jeffrey Hsu (BYU) 6-3, 6-5, unfinished
3. #39 Melios Efstathiou (WF) def. Sam Tullis (BYU) 7-6 (7-5), 6-2
4. Yuval Solomon (WF) def. Mateo Vereau (BYU) 7-6 (7-1), 6-4
5. #80 Rrezart Cungu (WF) vs. Ben Gajardo (BYU) 6-3, 5-5, unfinished
6. Julian Zlobinsky (WF) def. Vinicius Nogueira (BYU) 6-4, 6-2

Order of finish: (6, 4, 3)

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PROVO, Utah – No. 68 BYU men's tennis heads back to the east coast to play No. 1 Wake Forest at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend in North Carolina, Friday.

BYU (3-1) faces Wake Forest (3-0) on Friday, Jan. 25, at 5 p.m. EDT. The matches will be held at the Wake Forest Tennis Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

At this year's ITA Kick-Off Weekend the Cougars will also play either No. 26 Memphis or No. 37 Old Dominion on Saturday.

The winner of the BYU/Wake Forest match will play the winner of the Memphis/Old Dominion match at 5 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Jan. 26. The losers will face each other at 2 p.m. EDT.

No. 68 BYU
The Cougars went 1-1 last week upsetting No. 61 Florida Atlantic 4-2 and then dropping a close match to No. 66 UNC-Wilmington 3-4. BYU's No. 1 doubles duo of Sean Hill and Jeffrey Hsu is ranked 19th in the nation.

No. 1 Wake Forest
The Demon Deacons are undefeated on the season with a 3-0 record and they have four ranked singles players. Petros Chrysochos is ranked No. 1 nationally. Bar Botzer comes in at No. 25, while teammate Melios Efstathiou is ranked No. 39. Rounding out the ranked players for Wake Forest is Rrezart Cungu, who is ranked 80th nationally.

No. 26 Memphis
The Tigers have an experienced team with six upperclassmen. They've compiled a 4-0 record on the year. Memphis has wins over Northwestern, Belmont and Jackson State twice.  

No. 37 Old Dominion
The ­­­Monarchs, who are 1-0 on the year have two ranked singles players and one ranked doubles duo. In singles, Francois Musitelli is No. 74 and Aziz Kijametovic is No. 94. Musitelli and Kijametovic team up together as the No. 21 doubles team. 

Live video streaming will only be available for the matches that Wake Forest plays in. Live stats are available on the men’s tennis schedule. Results will be updated following the matches.

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Fans can keep up with the latest on Cougar tennis by following us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/byumenstennis), Twitter (@BYU_Mens_Tennis) and Instagram (@byumtennis).