PROVO -- In the third place match at the Boise Invitational, the 64th ranked BYU men's tennis team beat College of Santa Fe 4-3 to secure the win.
Thanks to some late match heroics from Jonathan Sanchez, BYU sneaked out of Boise with their third win in four matches. Earlier in the Invitational, BYU beat Bradley University and Wichita State then lost to 28th ranked Texas A&M Corpus-Chrisi in the semifinals. BYU then played one of the NAIA's best team in the College of Santa Fe and handed them only their second loss all season.
The Cougars would get the doubles point early as Nima Roshan and Jose Lechuga won at one doubles 8-6 and Chip Hand and Shane LaPorte held on for an 8-6 win in the third doubles spot to assure the point and the lead going into singles.
BYU would split the singles with Santa Fe at three apiece. BYU would get a big win from Nima Roshan at one singles 7-6.6-4. Then the red-hot Chip Hand chipped in an easy 6-2,6-2 at the fifth singles. College of Santa Fe would take two, three and four singles to tie the match at 3-3.
The deciding match point would come from freshman Jonathan Sanchez at the six singles spot. Sanchez would lose the first set 7-6, but battled back in the second set winning 6-4 to split the matches. Then with all eyes on them in the third match and the pressure mounting, Sanchez kept cool and delivered a 6-4 win in the third set to give BYU the thrilling victory.
BYU took third place at the Boise Invitational, while improving their overall record to 12-4. The boys are on the road again next weekend to open up conference play. They travel to San Diego to take on UNLV Friday, followed Saturday's match against host San Diego State.
BYU vs. College of Santa Fe (third place match)
BYU 4, Santa Fe 3
Doubles:
1. Lechuga/Roshan, BYU, def. Omana/Angulo-Carrasco, CSF, 8-6
2. Begemann/Scholten, CSF, def. Kaufhold/Ludlow, BYU, 8-6
3. Hand/LaPorte. BYU, def. Chiriacov/Aranda, CSF, 8-6
Singles:
1. Nima Roshan, BYU, def. Andre Begemann, CSF, 7-6 6-4
2. Daniel Scholten, CSF, def. James Ludlow, BYU, 6-2 6-4
3. Ivan Angulo Carrasco, CSF, def. Shane LaPorte, BYU, 6-3 6-1
4. Ricardo Amana, CSF, def. Jeff Das, BYU, 6-1 6-1
5. Chip Hand, BYU, def. Anibal Aranda, CSF, 6-2 6-2
6. Jonathon Sanchez, BYU, def. Dima Chiriacov, CSF, 5-7 6-4 6-4