PROVO, Utah — BYU men’s tennis took down rival Utah 4-1 on Senior Day at the Outdoor Tennis Courts Saturday, extending its win streak to seven matches heading into the final road trip of the season next weekend.
"We're thrilled about the win over the University of Utah," BYU head coach Dave Porter said. "It's a good team and big in-state rivalry. We're more pleased to keep the momentum going that we've built in the last few conference matches as we prepare for maybe the toughest road trip of the year down to play Pepperdine and LMU. We're enjoying the moment, but we're putting it to the side quickly and making preparations to get through finals and get ready for the next two matches in Los Angeles."
The Utes started the match winning the doubles point, earning wins at both No. 3 and No. 2 doubles, with the match at No. 1 doubles going unfinished tied at 5-5. That would be Utah's only point of the afternoon, however, as the Cougars took four straight singles matches to win the match.
At No. 5 singles, Mateo Vereau Melendez quickly beat Mathias Gavelin 6-2, 6-3 to tie the match a 1-apiece. After taking the first set handily, Ben Gajardo rallied from down 2-0 in the second set, winning the tiebreaker 6-2 to earn a win at No. 3 singles.
Sean Hill followed with a win in the No. 1 spot, beating Franco Capalbo, 6-1, 6-4. In the No. 6 spot, Matheus Ferreira Leite fought back in each of his sets, taking the first 7-5, and second 7-6 (4), to clinch the match for BYU.
The Cougars will head to California for the final weekend of the regular season. BYU will face No. 30 Pepperdine on Friday, April 23, at 2 p.m. PDT, for a chance to win the West Coast Conference regular season title and earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Cougars will then visit LMU on Saturday, April 24, at 1 p.m. PDT.
Links to a live stream and live stats for the Pepperdine match will be provided.
MATCH RESULTS
BYU 4 Utah 1
Doubles Competition
1. Jack Barnett/Ben Gajardo (BYU) vs. Francisco Bastias/Slava Shainyan (Utah), 5-5, uf.
2. Franco Capalbo/Luis Flores (Utah) def. Sean Hill/Sam Tullis (BYU), 6-4
3. Geronimo Busleiman/Mathias Gavelin (Utah) def. Mateo Vereau Melendez/Brigham Andrus (BYU), 6-1
Order of finish: (3, 2)
Singles Competition
1. Sean Hill (BYU) def. Franco Capalbo (Utah), 6-1, 6-4
2. Jack Barnett (BYU) vs. Geronimo Busleiman (Utah), 6-2, 4-6, 3-3, uf.
3. Ben Gajardo (BYU) def. Slava Shainyan (Utah), 6-1, 7-6 (2)
4. Sam Tullis (BYU) vs. Francisco Bastias (Utah), 6-3, 4-6, 2-1, uf.
5. Mateo Vereau Melendez (BYU) def. Mathias Gavelin (Utah), 6-2, 6-3
6. Matheus Ferreira Leite (BYU) vs. Bruno Krenn (Utah), 7-5, 7-6 (4)
Order of finish: (5, 3, 1, 6)