HOUSTON – Eight BYU men’s tennis players are in Texas for the Rice Fall Challenge, which will include a singles and doubles contest each day this Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 27-29. BYU and tournament hosts Rice will be joined by SMU, Texas A&M Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) and UTSA.
Schedule
Thursday, Oct. 27
3:00 p.m. CDT – Singles versus Rice
5:00 p.m. – Doubles versus SMU and UTSA
Friday, Oct. 28
10:00 a.m. – Doubles versus Rice and TAMUCC
11:00 a.m. – Singles versus UTSA and TAMUCC
Saturday, Oct. 29
10:00 a.m. – Doubles versus UTSA and TAMUCC
11:00 a.m. – Singles versus SMU and TAMUCC
Specific pairings and results will be announced on the team’s social media accounts as they are made available. There will not be any streaming options.
The Cougars
BYU’s doubles teams are Wally Thayne and Zach Fuchs, Dominik Jakovljevic and Alex Lin, Mateo Vereau and Brigham Andrus, as well as Redd Owen and Brian Chen. The Cougars will also compete individually in singles.
Andrus will be making his first appearance since Feb. 19 after missing most of last season due to injury. Thayne will be the team’s No. 1 singles player and has won five of his last six singles matches this fall. Lin also brings a strong singles form to Texas, concluding last week’s Mountain Regional with a 2-1 record.
Thayne and Fuchs went 4-3 together in doubles last season. Vereau and Andrus last played doubles together during the 2020-21 season, going 2-2. Freshmen Owen and Chen are also 2-2 as a team after beginning their BYU careers in September. Jakovljevic and Lin will be marking their eighth career match together.
BYU last visited Texas in 2013, where the team participated in a tournament run by TAMUCC.
The Competition
Rice
The Owls are led by sophomore Haoyuan Huang, who is currently ranked No. 88 nationally in singles. Last year he was 13-3 in Rice’s No. 1 singles position.
SMU
Last season SMU earned a berth to the NCAA Tournament, finishing the season ranked 22nd in the nation. Twelve of the 15 players on the current Mustang roster were on that team, with junior Adam Neff and senior Pranav Kumar making up this year’s No. 22 doubles pairing nationally. Neff is also ranked No. 124 in singles.
TAMUCC
The Islanders just finished hosting their own tournament last week, where they won all three divisions after matches with UT Arlington and Lamar. TAMUCC’s seven-man roster has five upperclassmen.
UTSA
Alan Magadan and Sebastian Rodriguez won the first regional title in program history this month when they took home the doubles crown at the ITA Texas Regional Championship. The unranked pair upset three nationally ranked teams (Nos. 3, 13 and 24) during the competition.