PROVO, Utah (April 9th 2005)---If you missed today's match verses Air Force, you missed some great college tennis. BYU's No. 55 men's tennis team came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the No. 68 Falcons 4-3 and preserve their perfect home record.
"To be perfect at home is such an accomplishment, especially with the high caliber teams that we have faced here," said head coach Brad Pearce. "It really is a testament to how well our guys have played and the great crowd support we have had though out the year. We have been really grateful for our wonderful fans."
With the win, the Cougars close out conference play with a 4-1 record placing them in second place behind San Diego State. The win also marks an incredible turn around for the men's tennis team. At this point in the season last year the Coug's were 8-14, they have now done a near reversal posting a solid 16-5 overall record.
BYU came out of the gates strong, riding the strong doubles play of their No. 1 doubles duo of Nima Roshan and Jose Lechuga. The duo came from 2-1 down to win 8-6. Then Cougars Dominik Kaufhold and James Ludlow picked up an easy 8-4 win at No. 2 doubles to give BYU the doubles point and the early 1-0 lead going into singles.
But things started to get a little hairy for BYU once they got going in singles. Nima Roshan wasn't able to hold onto his No. 1 singles match against the country's No. 68 ranked singles player. He lost 6-3,6-4. At the 2 singles, Air Force would take the overall match lead with a tough 6-1,7-6(9-7) win over BYU's James Ludlow giving the falcons a 2-1 lead.
Air Force extended their lead to 3-1 with a win over Jeff Das at No. 3 singles 6-4,6-2 and were on the verge of taking the No. 4 singles match when Freshman Shane LaPorte came up with some late heroics. Air Force's Dong won the first set 7-6 and was up 2-1 in the second set when LaPorte came alive. He managed to win the second set in a thrilling back and forth match, 7-6.
In the meantime, the red-hot Chip Hand cruised to 6-2,6-1 win at No. 5 singles and freshman Jonathan Sanchez won 6-2,6-1 to even the overall match score to 3-3. With those two wins, the pressure for the win and the perfect home record was squarely upon LaPorte to win his final set. He simply took it in stride. He got up 5-2 in the third and never faltered winning 6-3.
BYU heads up north to take on Boise State Thursday April 14th and Fresno State Friday the 15th before the Mountain West Conference Tournament starts on the 28th .
Results: BYU 4 def. Air Force 3
Singles
1. #68Buck(AF) def. Roshan(BYU) 6-3,6-4
2. McClund(AF) def. Ludlow (BYU)6-1,7-6(9-7)
3. Johnson(AF) def. Das(BYU) 6-4,6-2
4. LaPorte(BYU) def. Dong(AF) 6-7,7-6,6-3
5. Hand(BYU) def. Lau(AF) 6-2,6-1
6. Sanchez(BYU) def. Alexander(AF) 6-1,6-2
Doubles
1. Roshan/Lechuga(BYU) def. Dong/Johnson(AF) 8-6
2. Kaufhold/Ludlow(BYU) def. Lau Buck(AF) 8-4
3. Hand/LaPorte(BYU) def. McClund/Alexander(AF) 8-5