SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - BYU men’s tennis is heading to the UCSB Classic for the second-straight year, with the team looking to build on its success from last year. The tournament will be on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 7-8 at UC Santa Barbara’s Arnhold Tennis Center.
Zach Fuchs, Redd Owen, Wally Thayne and Mateo Vereau will represent the Cougars this weekend. Fuchs and Vereau will team up for doubles play, as will Thayne and Owen.
Schedule
Players will be divided into different divisions, which will each have single-elimination singles and doubles brackets. Consolation matches will also be played.
There will be one doubles and one singles round each day, with the potential for more matches in some divisions. Play begins at 11:00 a.m. PDT Friday.
Thayne will be in the top singles division, Flight A. Fuchs, Owen and Vereau will be in Flight B. Thayne and Owen will play their doubles matches in Flight A, with Fuchs and Vereau in Flight B.
Select matches will be streamed live through UCSB's PlaySight page. Those streams are expected to include Thayne's singles matches, along with his and Owen's doubles matches.
Friday's Initial Draw
Flight A Doubles:
- Thayne/Owen (BYU) versus Tripathi/Fradkin (UCLA)
Flight B Doubles:
- Fuchs/Vereau (BYU) versus Josserand/Gonzalez (SDSU)
Flight A Singles:
- Wally Thayne (BYU) versus Jeffrey Fradkin (UCLA)
Flight B Singles:
- Zach Fuchs (BYU) versus Eugenio Gonzalez (SDSU)
- Mateo Vereau (BYU) versus Callaway Clark (SMU)
- Redd Owen (BYU) versus Georgio Samaha (New Mexico)
The team’s social media channels will share results, along with further draws, match times and live streams as the tournament progresses.
The Cougars
The Los Altos, Calif. native is returning to his home state for the competition. A junior, Fuchs will be making his first appearance for BYU since February 2022 after dealing with an injury last season. Prior to ending the year, Fuchs was 7-3 in singles play, including 3-1 in the spring dual match portion.
The freshman from Sandy, Utah will continue his transition to the collegiate level in his second tournament of the season. Two weeks ago, Owen went 1-2 in singles at the ITA Bedford Cup in the Mountains.
Thayne will also be playing in his home state this weekend. Santa Barbara is less than an hour drive from his hometown of Newbury Park. At the 2021 edition of this competition, Thayne partnered with teammate Jack Barnett to finish second in the top doubles division. The junior also went 2-1 in singles, advancing to the second division’s semifinal.
Mateo Vereau
The fifth-year senior from Trujillo, Peru is one of three international players on BYU’s nine-man roster. Vereau also competed at the UCSB Classic in 2021, going 2-1 in singles to make it to the semifinal of the second division. He also played in doubles with teammate Dominik Jakovljevic.
Fuchs/Vereau
The pair made one doubles appearances together last season, defeating Grand Canyon's Martim Marujo and Aiden Coulome 6-3 on Jan. 27, 2022. Fuchs is 5-3 in doubles at BYU, while Vereau has played in 86 career doubles matches, holding a 41-31 record (14 unf.).
Thayne/Owen
Thayne and Owen will be playing together for the first time. Owen was 1-2 in his first doubles appearances with Brian Chen at the Bedford Cup, while Thayne's 30 doubles appearances in 2021-22 led the team. Thayne went 15-12 (3 unf.) in his first year at BYU, finishing the season ranked No. 10 in doubles for the ITA Mountain Region with teammate Tennyson Whiting.
The Competition
In addition to BYU and UCSB, Cal Poly, LMU, New Mexico, Saint Mary's, San Diego State, SMU, UCLA and Westmont will also be competing. Four of the 10 teams finished the 2021-22 season ranked nationally (SMU No. 28, UCLA No. 47, UCSB No. 56 and Cal Poly No. 63).