PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s tennis picked up its 10th win of the season against Air Force on Saturday, 5-2. The Cougars had a back-to-back this weekend, dropping the first match against No. 70 Denver on Friday evening and beating Air Force on Saturday afternoon. BYU is now 10-2 and has just one more match before Big 12 Conference play begins.
Doubles Results
Wally Thayne/Zach Fuchs (BYU) def. AJ Moore/Langdon Tingleaf (AF) 6-4
Hardy Owen/Alex Edmonston (BYU) unf. Phillip Deaton/Tyler Laird (AF) 3-5
TJ Wells/Tygen Goldammer (BYU) def. Arjun Kersten/Matthew Staton (AF) 6-3
Singles Results
Wally Thayne (BYU) def. Phillip Deaton (AF) 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-2
Zach Fuchs (BYU) def. Arjun Kersten (AF) 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3
AJ Moore (AF) def. Tygen Goldammer (BYU) 6-4, 6-4
Alec Fritzinger (AF) def. Adam Chodur (BYU) 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(3)
TJ Wells (BYU) def. Matthew Staton (AF) 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-3
David Duong (BYU) def. Langdon Tingleaf (AF) 7-6(6), 4-6, (10-7)
BYU got its first point from doubles play. Wells and Goldammer controlled much of their set, winning 6-3 on court four. Despite an early run from Moore and Tingleaf, the Cougars — Thayne and Fuchs — were able to fight back and win their set.
The Cougars had five of their six singles matches go to a third set, which is the most this season. All five of them had tiebreaks involved in them as well. Out of the five three-set matches, they were able to win four of them and secure the match after winning the doubles point early.
Fuchs, Thayne and Chodur were the first of the long matches. Thayne got down a set early in the match and fought hard in the second to stay in it. He was broken early on, and it wasn’t until he was down 4-5 that he was able to get that break back and force a tiebreak. The tiebreak was neck-and-neck, but Thayne capitalized late and won 8-6. This led to him controlling the third and winning the match.
Fuchs was in control for a large portion of his match. Behind his big serve, he was unbreakable in the first set, leading to a win. He was the same for much of the second set until late when he was broken for the first time. This led to a tiebreak in which he lost 7-4. He came out in the third and finished the match, winning 6-3.
Fritzinger was able to control much of the first set against Chodur. Although he lost, he came into the second energized and was able to hold serve the whole set. At the end of the set, he broke Fritzinger and earned his way to taking set two. Set three was tough on both sides, neither able to gain much advantage. Eventually they found themselves in a tiebreak and Chodur wasn’t able to command the tiebreak and lost 7-3.
Goldammer was also in a tight match that didn’t make it to three sets. He lost 6-4, 6-4 in very similar sets. There were breaks on both sides throughout both sets. Moore was able to get the final breaks in both sets to finish the match.
The last wave of matches were Wells and Duong. Duong didn’t play his last point until 5 p.m., as the match, which started at noon, stretched on for five hours.
Wells was in a long first set. Both sides were breaking back-and-forth, neither able to pull ahead. This ended in a tiebreak that Wells fell behind early in and couldn’t recover, losing 7-4. After dropping the first set, Wells kicked his game up a notch, dictating the last two sets. He was able to break serve multiple times in both sets and won them both by at least three games 6-2, 6-3.
Duong finished the match for the Cougars. In the first set neither side was able to break the other with much consistency. With no breaks, they went to the fifth tiebreak on the evening, where Duong was able to get in control early on. They stayed close until 6-6, when Duong was able to get a mini break and end the set on his serve. In the second, it was much of the same, with few breaks of serve. Multiple times, Duong had to fight out of an 0-40 hole, and he kept doing it, but in the end he got down in his final service game and was broken. After splitting sets, the third set was decided in a 10-point tiebreak. Duong got going early, giving himself an 8-5 lead with the serve. He dropped his two service points in a row but was able to rally and win himself the match with two consecutive points on Tingleaf’s serve.
Up Next
The Cougars play their final match before Big 12 play against LMU on Friday, March 7 at La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club in California.