Men's Tennis Downs Southern Mississippi

LINCOLN -- The first day of a weekend road trip to the Midwest ended with a 6-1 win for the No. 66 BYU men’s tennis team. The Cougars dominated No. 75 Southern Mississippi to improve their record to 9-7.

“We got a great performance out of everybody,” BYU coach Brad Pearce said. “Everyone fought hard and competed well.”

The team, which has recently struggled with doubles, played new combinations in the match against USM. Freshmen Georgy Batrakov and Roman Warias handily defeated their opponents 8-3 at the No. 1 position. Tiebreak wins by BYU duos on courts two and three completed the first Cougar doubles sweep in a month of play.

“We got off to a great start, and the doubles sweep gave us a lot of confidence,” Pearce said.

Batrakov kept things rolling in singles play, making quick work of his Golden Eagles foe on court five. Thomas Shubert’s win at the No. 3 position put the Cougars one point away from victory. A loss on court one gave Southern Miss its only point of the day.

Junior Cassidy Mears clinched the victory for BYU with a 6-4, 7-6 win on court four. Warias and Daniel Hwang also notched wins at the No. 2 and No. 6 positions respectively to earn the 6-1 scoreline.

“I was pleased to see us play so well at every position against a competitive team,” Pearce said. “It was a good win for us.”

BYU will continue play Saturday against No. 53 Nebraska. The match will start at 7 p.m. at the Nebraska Tennis Center.

Match Results
BYU-6
Southern Mississippi-1
Doubles
1. Batrakov/Warias (BYU) def. Burmeister/Poole (USM) 8-3
2. Mears/Urbina (BYU) def. #64Alvarado/Wessinghage (USM) 9-8 (3)
3. Hwang/Shubert (BYU) def. Anic/D. Machuca (USM) 8-7 (5)
Singles
1. #97P. Alvarado (USM) def. E. Urbina (BYU) 6-4, 7-6
2. R. Warias (BYU) def. D. Anic (USM) 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
3. T. Shubert (BYU) def. D. Machuca (USM) 6-3, 7-5
4. C. Mears (BYU) def. O. Machuca (USM) 6-4, 7-6
5. G. Batrakov (BYU) def. J. Burmeister (USM) 6-1, 6-2
6. D. Hwang (BYU) def. S. Krstevski (USM) 6-3, 4-6, 6-1