Las Vegas, Nev. (Oct. 23, 2004) The talented but young Cougars showed flashes of brilliance this weekend as they played under the storm clouds in Las Vegas.
The first day of singles competition, played between rain storms, saw the Cougars nearly compete a sweep of the board as Lechuga, LaPorte, Kaufhold, and Ludlow all recorded wins in the first round. Jonathan Sanchez was the only one to drop a match as he lost a heartbreaker to Northern Arizona's Jamie Maxwell 6-7,6-2,6-1. The rest of the Cougars had first round bye's.
In the second round of the singles tournament Nima Roshan, Jeff Das, Chip Hand James Ludlow all breezed past their opponents as neither of them lost more than three games in a set. Kaufhold overcame Colorado's Marek Dvorak in a tough match 2-6,6-5,7-6. BYU's Lechuga, however, bowed out to UNLV's one seed Henner Nehles 6-1,7-5.
Roshan and Kaufold were able to make it to the quarterfinals by beating New Mexico's David Kowalski 6-3,4-1 and Marek Dvorak 2-6,6-3,6-2 respectively. They both would later lose their quarterfinal matches with Roshan losing to Denver's Adam Holmstrom 6-1,6-4 and Kaufhold losing to UNLV's Aviram Salomon.
The Cougars swept their first round in doubles as BYU's Kaufhold/Sanchez defeated Balgojevic/Jelone of UNLV 8-2, LaPorte/Ludlow beat New Mexico's Avila/Beg 8-3 and Das/Hand smoked Chalkey/Mucharraz of Idaho 8-0. Lechuga and Roshan had a first round bye.
In the second round, Lechuga/Roshan beat New Mexico's Girl/Wing 8-2 as Kaufhold/Sanchez advanced as Air Force's Burk/McClung withdrew. LaPorte/Ludlow lost to Boise's Klemann/Roberson 8-3 and Das/Hand bowed out to New Mexico's Jones/Pojkawski.
BYU's duo Lechuga and Roshan would be the farthest Cougars to advance in doubles as the beat UNLV's Hubbard/Kielbowks 8-6 to go on to the quarterfinals but that was as far as they would get. Boise's Shoeck/Shields defeated the duo 8-6.