COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado - Four Cougars are at the U.S. Air Force Academy this weekend to open the 2022-23 BYU men’s tennis season. The ITA Bedford Cup in the Mountains features singles and doubles draws for players from nine schools.
BYU’s Brian Chen, Dominik Jakovljevic, Alex Lin and Redd Owen will compete in singles on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 23-24. Jakovljevic and Lin will team up for open doubles play on those same days, as will Owen and Chen.
Tournament Notes
Schedule and Results
On both Friday and Saturday, doubles play will be at 9:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. MDT, while singles play gets underway at 9:45 a.m. and 2:15 p.m.
Pairings, start times and results for the Cougars will be announced on the team’s social media accounts as they are made available. BYU results will also be added to a tournament updates page, while every result from the cup will be posted on the ITA website.
Singles and doubles champions will be determined based on the individual winners of single-elimination brackets, as opposed to a collective school score. Consolation matches will also be held.
The tournament concludes on Sunday, Sept. 25. The Cougars will only compete in the first two days of the competition because of BYU’s longstanding policy of not competing on Sunday due to religious observance.
The Cougars
The freshman from Changhua, Taiwan will be making his BYU debut this weekend. Chen was the top-ranked player in Taiwan for his age group when he was 14 before focusing on academics throughout high school.
Dominik Jakovljevic
A junior from Bellevue, Wash., Jakovljevic has 24 career singles appearances. He has also made seven career doubles appearances, three of which were with Lin last season.
Alex Lin
Lin is also a junior, joining the Cougars in 2020 as a five-star recruit. The Gold River, Cali. native has 13 singles and 10 doubles appearances for BYU.
Owen will join Chen in making his BYU debut in Colorado. The former five-star recruit at Brighton High School in Sandy, Utah recently returned from serving a full-time, two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in West Virginia and Benin.
Coaching Staff
Head coach Dave Porter is in his third season at BYU. He previously spent 33 years at BYU–Hawaii (1984-2017), where he won 11 national championships.
Assistant coach Rong Ma joined the staff before the 2021-22 season. He played for Coach Porter at BYU–Hawaii and also spent five years as an assistant for his alma mater.
The Competition
BYU and tournament hosts Air Force will be joined by Boise State, Denver, Idaho, Montana State, New Mexico State, Utah and Weber State. Matches will be played on the USAFA Intercollegiate Outdoor Tennis Courts.
Fans wishing to attend in-person can do so free of charge. Free parking can be accessed through the Academy’s north gate, which will require a photo ID for entrance.
Singles matches are best-of-three sets, with a full third set played in the main draw. A 10-point tiebreaker will be in effect for consolation matches. Doubles matches will consist of one first-to-six games set.