LOS ANGELES – BYU men's tennis advanced all doubles duos and five singles players to the main draws at the Southern California Intercollegiate, while Sean Hill and Mateo Vereau Melendez wrapped up their time at the ITA Nat’l Fall Championships on Thursday.
“Both Sean and Mateo earned their way into the fall nationals and both played some great tennis,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “They experienced another level of competition and both became better, more seasoned players because of it. They have fall seasons to be proud of and will continue to build on. On another note, we qualified five of six players for the main draw of the So Cal Intercollegiate, so there is more tennis to be played this week.”
Doubles
After wins in the doubles qualifying rounds, Cougar pair David Ball and Vinicius Feijao Nogueira and duo Jack Barnett and Matheus Ferreira Leite will meet Ben Gajardo and Sam Tullis in the doubles main draw.
Ball and Feijao Nogueira quickly beat Derek James and Alexey Prokopchuk of Biola University, 8-2, while Barnett and Ferreira Leite took on UC Santa Barbara’s (UCSB) Luka Vukmanovic and Joshua Williams and came out with an 8-2 victory.
Singles
Ball, Barnett, Gajardo, Ferreira Leite and Tullis advanced from the qualifying rounds to the singles main draw.
In the qualifying round of 64, Ferreira Leite defeated Edywn Ramos of Biola University 6-4, 6-2, while Vinicius Feijao Nogueira topped UC San Diego’s Marius Ruh, 6-2, 6-2.
Tullis, Barnett, Ball and Gajardo received byes into the qualifying round of 32.
Ferreira Leite won his second match of the day as he claimed a victory over Sam Turchetta of Stanford, 6-4, 7-6. After being down one set, Tullis rallied back and beat UCSB’s Vukmanovic in three sets, 5-7, 6-3, 1-0(6).
Barnett handily defeated Wilhelm Saiga of UCSB 6-1, 6-3, Ball quickly topped his opponent, Chapman University’s Joshua Blinder, 6-1, 6-1 and Gajardo claimed a victory over Williams of UCSB in a quick 6-2, 6-2 match.
Feijao Nogueira fell to Caleb Wilkins of Chapman University in a close three-set match at 4-6, 6-3, 0-1(7).
Meanwhile, in Newport Beach, California, Vereau Melendez fell 2-6, 0-6 to No. 11 seed Christian Sigsgaard of the University of Texas in the round of 32 at the ITA National Fall Championships.
Hill fought hard in the consolation bracket against the University of Minnesota’s Stefan Milicevic but came up short in three sets, 6-7(0), 7-6(4), 5-7.
Tomorrow, singles and doubles main draw play begins at the So Cal Intercollegiate. Five Cougars and three doubles duos will compete with hopes of advancing.
Tournament information and draws can be found at the tournament homepage.