Cougars face WCC foes on the road

PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s tennis hits the road this week to put their undefeated West Coast Conference record on the line with matches at Loyola Marymount and No. 49 Pepperdine.

The Cougars (9-11, 3-0) were in southern California last weekend for the BNP Paribas Open, one of the most competitive tournaments in college tennis. BYU lost in matches against No. 2 Baylor and No. 27 Tulsa but came away with some big wins. Francis Sargeant beat No. 33 ranked singles Or Ram-Harel in straight sets against Tulsa and combined with teammate Shane Monroe to beat the No. 53 ranked doubles duo in the nation.

The Lions (8-8, 0-4) hope a home match against the Cougars will provide their first conference win of the season. However, three of their four conference losses have come against the two ranked teams in the conference (No. 30 San Diego and Pepperdine) and Portland who is also undefeated in conference. LMU beat No. 72 Utah two weeks ago in Los Angeles.

The Waves (10-7, 2-1) currently sit at fourth in the WCC behind BYU, San Diego and Portland. Last season, Pepperdine visited Provo and delivered a heartbreaking loss to the Cougars in a tiebreaker in the final matchup of the match.

The match Friday against LMU will begin at 2 p.m. PDT and Saturday’s Pepperdine match in Malibu will begin at 1 p.m. PDT.