SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Despite several three-set matches at San Francisco, BYU Men’s tennis eventually fell 4-0 to the Dons at the Goldman Tennis Center on Friday.
“We played hard today,” said head coach Dave Porter. “We are still recovering from injuries, but our fight was there. The team represented our university well and we are looking forward to a good match against Santa Clara tomorrow.”
With Wally Thayne and Tennyson Whiting at No. 1 doubles for BYU, the doubles duo fought hard eventually falling to Nitzan Ricklis and Phuc Huynh 6-2.
Playing strong for BYU, Matheus Leite and Mateo Vereau took the win at No. 2 doubles over Mitch Johnson and Nil Giraldez of USF. Leaving the doubles point up to No. 3 doubles, BYU and USF fought to the end.
At No. 3 doubles for BYU, Otto Schreiner and Alex Lin took their opponents Stevie Gould and Nikola Kuraica to 5-5 eventually falling 7-5 to give the Dons their first point.
Playing through injuries, BYU began singles play against USF trailing by one. Starting strong at No. 2 singles, Matheus took the first set win 6-2, falling in the second set to Huynh. Leite was on serve 2-3 in the third set when the match finished.
With another close match at No. 1 singles, Thayne battled Giraldez to a tiebreak in the first set, and eventually suffered the loss in the second set 6-3 to put the Dons up by 2.
Splitting sets at No. 3, 4, and 6 singles, BYU fought to take the win. With Schreiner taking the first set win at No. 4 singles, Mitch Johnson of USF came back to win the match in three 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Johnson’s win gave USF their third point. At No. 6 singles, Whiting took the first set with a 6-2 win and fought hard in the next two sets eventually falling to David Woodland of USF to secure the 4-0 win for the Dons.
The Cougars will travel to face Santa Clara on Saturday. The match is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. PST with live stats and a live stream available.