Men's Tennis Ends Winning Streak at Stanford

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- The No. 35 BYU men’s tennis team suffered a 7-0 loss to No. 8 Stanford Tuesday, the team’s first loss since February.

“I think we learned some things as to how we need to get better individually,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “I think a little dose of humility will be good for us. But we have nothing to hang our heads about. We got beat by a very good team today playing very good tennis. We’ll bounce back and regroup and be ready to take on Utah Saturday.”

The loss broke the Cougars’ 14-match winning streak that began with a sweep of Nevada Feb. 18. BYU now holds an 18-5 overall record and is still undefeated in conference play.

No. 80 Georgy Batrakov and Thomas Shubert fell 8-5 to No. 3 Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thatcher at the No. 1 position followed by Spencer Smith and Roman Warias falling 8-3 to Jamin Ball and Alex Clayton. Evan Urbina and Patrick Kawka fought long and hard on Court 2, but lost in the tiebreaker to Matt Kandath and Denis Lin 8-7 (5).

Batrakov continued to press hard in singles play, ending up the only Cougar to win a set, but lost in the tiebreaking set to No. 43 Thacher 6-4, 4-6, (10-3). Urbina and Spencer were defeated in singles by No. 9 Klahn and No. 66 Clayton, respectively. Wins on Courts 4, 5 and 6 completed Stanford’s sweep.

“Stanford has beaten some of the top teams in the country this year,” Pearce said. “Their coach said this was one of the better matches they’ve played this year. The bright side of this is they were aware of the type of season we’ve been having and they prepared for that.”

The Cardinal advances to a 17-5 record, 4-1 in the Pac-10.

BYU finishes conference play with a home match against rival Utah Saturday at 1 p.m., the teams’ final meeting as Mountain West Conference foes. Admission is free and fans may park in Y Lot parking lots northwest and south of the BYU Outdoor Tennis Courts. All fans wearing blue will receive a ticket for a free JDawgs hot dog.

In the case of bad weather, the match will be moved to the Indoor Tennis Courts.

No. 35 BYU vs. No. 8 Stanford
BYU-0     Stanford-7
DOUBLES
1) No. 3 Klahn/Thacher (STAN) def. No. 80 Batrakov/Shubert (BYU) 8-5
2) Matt Kandath/Lin (STAN) def. Kawka/Urbina (BYU) 8-7 (5)
3) Ball/Clayton (STAN) def. Smith/Warias (BYU) 8-3
Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2
SINGLES
1) No. 9 Bradley Klahn (STAN) def. Evan Urbina (BYU) 6-3, 6-0
2) No. 43 Ryan Thacher (STAN) def. Georgy Batrakov (BYU) 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (3)
3) No. 66 Alex Clayton (STAN) def. Spencer Smith (BYU) 6-3, 6-3
4) Denis Lin (STAN) def. No. 107 Patrick Kawka (BYU) 6-4, 6-2
5) Matt Kandath (STAN) def. Thomas Shubert (BYU) 6-3, 6-4
6) Jamin Ball (STAN) def. Roman Warias (BYU) 6-0, 6-2
Order of Finish: 1, 4, 3, 6, 5, 2