PROVO, Utah — BYU men’s tennis earned its fifth straight win with a 6-1 takedown of Nevada Friday afternoon at the Indoor Tennis Courts with over 350 in attendance.
The Cougars (6-3) took the doubles point with wins from Jack Barnett and Redd Owen along with Tygen Goldammer and TJ Wells. Singles matches were then won by Barnett, Wally Thayne, Zach Fuchs, David Duong and Goldammer.
“The team knew they had to be ready for a good Nevada team,” said BYU head coach Zack Warren. “We played solid doubles on all three courts and were able to continue that momentum into our singles matches. We were fortunate to have another great home crowd. We’ll now begin preparing for our Thursday matchup at Weber State. Let’s go Cougars!”
With the win, BYU moves to 3-0 at home since Zack Warren began his tenure as head coach.
Doubles
1. Zach Fuchs/Wally Thayne (BYU) vs. Edgar Destouet /Youssef Kadiri (NV) 5-4, unfinished
2. Jack Barnett/Redd Owen (BYU) def. Matheo Coupu/Loris Zisswiller (NV) 6-3
3. Tygen Goldammer/TJ Wells (BYU) def. Remy Tregoures/Greg Valente (NV) 6-2
Order of finish: 2,3
With Barnett serving, a scoop shot from Barnett near the service line was returned long by the Wolf Pack to give Owen and Barnett the 6-3 win on court two first.
BYU won the doubles point shortly after on the No. 3 court. There, Goldammer and Wells won a break point to go up 5-2. This set up an opportunity for Goldammer to serve for the win. With the score at 15-15, Wells hammered two overheads in a row to go up 30-15, which led to Goldammer’s eventual ace on match point to win 6-2.
No. 1 doubles went unfinished. Fuchs and Thayne earned a break to go up 3-2 with Fuchs serving. The junior rocketed several unreturnable serves to set up a game point where Thayne let the ball bounce before pummeling it down the center to go up 4-2. The Cougars were up 5-4 and 40-0 before the match was abandoned.
Singles
1. Jack Barnett (BYU) def. Matheo Coupu (NV) 6-2, 6-1
2. Wally Thayne (BYU) def. Youssef Kadiri (NV) 7-6 (7), 6-3
3. Zach Fuchs (BYU) def. Edgar Destouet (NV) 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4)
4. Loris Zisswiller (NV) def. Redd Owen (BYU) 6-3, 6-1
5. Tygen Goldammer (BYU) def. Remy Tregoures (NV) 6-7 (4), 6-4, 10-4
6. David Duong (BYU) def. Greg Valente (NV) 6-0, 6-2
Order of finish: 1,4,2,3,6,5
Barnett continued his momentum from doubles at No. 1 singles, recording an early break to go up 3-1. With the score at 30-30, the senior dived forward for a forehand lob that went down the line and landed perfectly in the right corner. He then won on game point after Wolf Pack Matheo Coupu hit the ball into the net. Barnett proceeded to cruise to a 6-2 set win. Set two was even more dominant as he earned a 6-1 victory.
Nevada cut the dual match lead to 2-1 at No. 4 singles. Owen and Loris Zisswiller were locked at 3-3 before Zisswiller found momentum and won three games in a row to win the set 6-3. Owen then trailed early in the second set before eventually falling 6-1. The loss was just Owen’s second singles loss in eight finished matches this year.
Thayne’s match began as a back-and-forth battle. Finding himself down 5-6 and serving, the junior equalized the score with an overhead that was returned wide. The ensuing tiebreaker mirrored the close first set scoring pattern, with the score at 6-6 on the second changeover. Youssef Kadiri then hit an errant forehand as Thayne prevailed 9-7. Despite a second set deficit early, Thayne held serve to go up 4-3. He then earned a break before rocketing a second serve ace on deuce point to win 6-3.
The result on court three clinched the dual match for BYU. Fuchs was down 4-5 in set one before he forced a tiebreaker, which the junior won 7-2. Down 3-4 in the second set, Fuchs held serve with a quick approach and putaway. This led to another tiebreaker. With the score at 4-4, he won on Destouet’s serve to set up two straight wins on his own serve to claim the two tiebreaker wins and a straight sets victory.
The remaining two matches were played out as Duong waltzed to a 6-0 first set win, drawing upon a dose of slices that slowed No. 6 Nevada singles sophomore Greg Valente. Duong got an early break in set two to go up 4-1 before coming back from 0-30 to notch another break. Up 5-2, the freshman found himself down 30-40 before long rallies led his opponent to hit wide as he won 6-2.
Goldammer then won the sixth point for BYU on the day, proving resilient after dropping a first set tiebreaker 4-7. The second set saw him hold serve when it mattered most to win 6-4. The match was decided by a super tiebreaker in place of the third set. There, the freshman was up 5-4 before winning five straight to claim his fifth singles victory on the year.
Up Next
The Cougars return to action next week, with a road match at in-state foe Weber State on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 11:30 p.m. MST.