Bears Rain Down On Cougars

BERKELEY, Calif. (Feb.28, 2006) -- Heavy West Coast rain did little to help the Cougars as the BYU men's tennis team dropped a wet one to California 4-1 Tuesday at the Hellman Tennis Center.

Because of the unexpectedly bad weather, the match began with singles play. There was just enough time for the teams to finish four matches before the rain started to pour down, and at intermission the Cougars found themselves down 3-1. Jose Lechuga scored the lone point for BYU, beating Ken Nakahara in a long three-set comeback, 0-6, 6-2, 6-3. James Ludlow rallied to take his opponent to three sets as well, but wasn't able to hold on and lost a tough match 6-0, 2-6, 6-1. Cal won the matches on courts two and four in straight sets.

After the rain had gone away, play resumed on courts three and six. Cal's Daniel Sebescen handed Chip Hand a 7-6, 7-6 loss in a tightly fought match on court three and gave Cal the necessary four points for victory. The teams did not finish play on court six.

BYU will spend Wednesday traveling to Corpus Christi, Texas, where they will compete in the Corpus Christi Invitational March 2-4.

SCORE: California 4 BYU 1
SINGLES
No. 1	(CAL) Conor Niland d. (BYU) James Ludlow, 6-0; 2-6; 6-1
No. 2	(CAL) Tyler Browne d. (BYU) Dominik Kaufhold, 6-3; 6-2
No. 3	(CAL) Daniel Sebescen d. (BYU) Christian Hand, 7-6; 7-6
No. 4	(CAL) Eoin Heavey d. (BYU) Ivan Kokurin, 6-0; 6-2
No. 5	(BYU) Jose Luis Lechuga d. (CAL) Ken Nakahara, 0-6; 6-2; 6-3
No. 6	(CAL) John Pettit vs.  (BYU) Jonathan Sanchez, 3-6; 5-5 DNF
* HEAVY RAIN IN MIDDLE OF MATCH