PROVO -- In the last home match of the season, the No. 63 BYU men’s tennis team recorded its second sweep of the weekend, a 7-0 result against Montana State. The win keeps the Cougars’ home record spotless on the season.
“We finished with a perfect record at home and that’s a great accomplishment,” BYU coach Brad Pearce said. “That’s something these guys can be proud of.”
For the first time this weekend BYU was unable to sweep doubles play. The Cougars still earned the point after Daniel Hwang and Thomas Shubert won on court two and Cassidy Mears and Evan Urbina won on court three.
Freshmen Georgy Batrakov and Roman Warias battled back from being down 3-6 to tie things up at six-all. But Montana State’s Jakub Dybala and Pawel Turzanski proved to be too much for the pair and the Bobcats took the match 8-6.
Urbina struck first for the Cougars, brushing off his Montana State opponent 6-1, 6-4 at the No. 3 position. Shubert followed with a victory of his own at court two to bring the Cougars’ total to three. Mears clinched the win for BYU with a tough win over Fletcher Keyes.
Warias, Batrakov and Hwang closed out the weekend with wins to blank the Bobcats 7-0. With the victory the team improves its overall record to 12-8.
“I’m expecting to build on the momentum of what we’ve accomplished in the last three days and use that next week,” Pearce said. “We’re going to be ready for the tough conference matches this year.”
BYU will begin conference play in Salt Lake City next week against No. 48 TCU, No. 62 Utah and No. 65 UNLV.
Match ResultsNo. 63 BYU- 7
Montana State- 0
Doubles
1. Dybala/Turzanski (MSU) def. Batrakov/Warias (BYU) 8-6
2. Hwang/Shubert (BYU) def. Fuentes/Smith (MSU) 8-3
3. Mears/Urbina (BYU) def. Keyes/Perkins (MSU) 8-4
Order of finish: 2, 3, 1
Singels
1. R. Warias (BYU) def. J. Dybala (MSU) 7-6, 6-2
2. T. Shubert (BYU) def. C. Smith (MSU) 6-3, 7-5
3. E. Urbina (BYU) def. P. Turzanski (MSU) 6-1, 6-4
4. C. Mears (BYU) def. F. Keyes (MSU) 6-2, 6-3
5. G. Batrakov (BYU) def. A. Fuentes (MSU) 6-0, 6-3
6. D. Hwang (BYU) def. E. Ferrero (MSU) 6-0, 6-3
Order of finish: 3, 2, 4, 1, 5, 6
PROVO -- After splitting matches on the road last week, the No. 63 men’s tennis team will return home to host Eastern Washington, Loyola Marymount and Montana State. These will be the Cougars’ final home matches of the season.
Eastern Washington comes to Provo with a 10-6 record. The Eagles last result was a 7-0 sweep of Bethany, but they will play Weber State and Idaho State before facing BYU. EWU’s Nico Riego de Dios and Kyle Schraeder comprise the first ranked doubles team in the school’s history, coming in at the No. 72 spot.
The Cougars will turn their attention to Loyola Marymount Friday. The Lions have struggled this season, compiling a 3-12 record so far. They dropped a 4-3 decision to No. 57 Harvard in their last outing. Last season, LMU defeated BYU 4-3 in Los Angeles.
Montana State will be the Cougars’ last foe of the weekend and last home match of the season. The Bobcats are 8-6 with their last result being a 4-3 win over Azusa Pacific. BYU defeated Montana State 6-1 when the teams met last year.
Thursday’s match against Eastern Washington begins at 6 p.m. at the BYU Indoor Tennis Courts, east of South Field. Friday and Saturday’s matches start at 1: 30 p.m. at the BYU Outdoor Tennis Center, weather permitting.
Admission is free, and the team will provide pizza and prizes for fans. All BYU “Y Lot” parking lots are open to the public after 4 p.m. during the week and all day Saturday.