San Diego, Calif. (April 28, 2006) -- A strong late-season run comes to a close for the BYU men's tennis team as they were eliminated from Mountain West Conference Championship contention with a 4-0 loss to TCU Friday at the Barnes Tennis Center.
BYU struggled in the early going and never seemed able to recover. The Cougars had their chances in the doubles portion of the match, fueled mainly by an 8-3 win by Nima Roshan and Jose Lechuga over Kriegler Brink and Jacopo Tezza. However, the other doubles teams couldn't match their play, and TCU stole the doubles point with two 8-2 victories.
The song remained the same for BYU in singles, as they just couldn't seem to find a chink in the Horned Frog Armor. TCU's Andrei Mlenda defeated James Ludlow at No. 1 singles in straight sets 6-2, 6-2, while Jordan Freitas did the same to Jonathan Sanchez at No. 6, winning 6-3, 6-3. Jacopo Tezza accounted for the last point for TCU with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Ivan Kokurin.
The Cougars entered conference play as the No. 3 seed, and earned that seed by going 4-2 in conference play. One of those losses was to TCU in their third conference match of the season. The Cougars are now 12-17 overall.
Doubles
1. R. Abreu/J. Freitas (TCU) def. J. Ludlow/D. Kaufhold (BYU) 8-2
2. N. Roshan/J. Lechuga (BYU) def. K. Brink/J. Tezza (TCU) 8-3
3. R. Barbu/C. Cotet (TCU) def. C. Hand/J. Sanchez (BYU) 8-2
Singles
1. Andrei Mlendea (TCU) def. James Ludlow (BYU) 6-2, 6-2
2. Rafael Abreu (TCU) vs. Nima Roshan (BYU) 6-7 (5), 6-1 (DNF)
3. Cosmin Cotet (TCU) vs. Dominik Kaufhold (BYU) 6-1, 6-5 (DNF)
4. Jacopo Tezza (TCU) def. Ivan Kokurin (BYU) 6-2, 6-1
5. Radu Barbu (TCU) vs. Jose Lechuga (BYU) 4-6, 5-2 (DNF)
6. Jordan Freitas (TCU) def. Jonathan Sanchez (BYU)6-3, 6-3