CHATTANOOGA -- As BYU's only remaining competitor in the Icy Hot/ITA All-American tournament, senior Erik Nyman defeated Zoltan Csanadi of Old Dominion (3-6, 6-1, 6-2) Wednesday to advance to the main draw of the tournament.
Nyman will begin play in the main draw Thursday morning for the second consecutive season. He will face Michael Kogan of Tulane at 11 a.m. CDT.
Nyman is no stranger to the single largest men's individual tournament in the country. The BYU senior saw action in the All-American last October as he and teammate Carlos Lozano made it as far as the quarterfinals where they fell to Stanford's Scott Lipsky and David Martin 8-1. The Stanford duo later fell in the men's doubles final match 9-8.
BYU head coach Brad Pearce and Nyman are the only Cougars still left in Chattanooga representing BYU. The other seven team members returned home earlier this week.
"This is a great achievement for Erik," Pearce said. "I'm really happy for him. To have one of our players make it this far two years in a row is a huge thing or BYU athletics."
There are only 64 remaining competitors in the tournament. All 64 will begin play Thursday morning. Other players representing the Mountain West Conference include Shannon Buck of Air Force and Divan Coetzee of New Mexico.