LAS VEGAS – BYU men’s tennis Wally Thayne and Zach Fuchs competed in the round of 16 on day three of the ITA Moutain Regionals in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“The team is playing at a consistently high level and we’re excited to continue building towards the spring season,” said Head Coach Zack Warren.
Thayne and Fuchs won their way to the round of 16 in both singles and doubles. They competed in doubles first at 9:15 a.m. and would follow in singles at 10:45 a.m.
They matched up against a University of Montana pairing and beat them 8-5. With this win, they moved on to the quarterfinals to play a University of Nevada team.
In the quarterfinals, the two teams would fight back and forth for the win throughout the match.
“Credit to Zach and Wally they put themselves in position,” said coach Warren. “They played really solid throughout the match and forced Nevada to come up with their best tennis at the most important moments.”
In the end, the teams would force the set into a tiebreak and Nevada would edge the Cougars winning it 7-5 and ending the set 8-7 knocking Thayne and Fuchs out of the tournament.
The Cougars would then both compete in the singles round of 16. Thayne faced Northern Arizona’s Daniel Torres. Thayne was not able to take a set in this round and was knocked out of singles play losing 6-2 6-2.
Fuchs played Jett Middleton from Boise State. Fuchs could not get a set either and lost the match 6-3 6-3. Both Cougars had grueling three-set matches in the round before.
“Zach and Wally will be back in action at the Sectional Championships in Malibu in just over three weeks,” said Warren.
BYU also had other matches played by David Duong, TJ Wells and Alex Edmonston.
Duong competed in the consolation bracket of the singles draw. He was able to get past the first round beating New Mexico State’s Itay Feigin 6-4 6-4. He then would be knocked out of play losing to Dario Ciobotaru from the University of New Mexico in a tight three-set match 3-6 6-2 and 7-10 in the third set tiebreak.
Wells and Edmonston played in extra matches against top players from Boise State and Air Force. Both were able to pick up three-set wins after a long week of play.
“Proud of them (Edmonston and Wells), they’ve been working really hard and have come up with some big wins this fall,” said coach Warren.
The Cougars have two remaining fall tournaments left in their season. In two weeks, they will head to SMU for The Ralston/Neufeld Coaches Challenge and then to Malibu to finish the season at the ITA National Fall Championships.