ORLANDO – The No. 53 BYU Cougars fell 4-1 to the No. 12 UCF Knights Thursday evening at the USTA National Campus in Flordia.
With the loss, BYU drops to 13-4 on the season with the past two losses both coming to teams currently ranked in the top 15.
BYU opened the match with a strong showing in doubles play, using its three most consistent pairings: Otto Schreiner and Adam Chodur on Court 1, TJ Wells and Tygen Goldammer on Court 2, and Hardy Owen with Caden Hasler on Court 3.
Chodur and Schreiner set the tone early, jumping out to a 4-1 lead before UCF rallied to even the score at 4-4. Meanwhile, Hasler and Owen rebounded from an early deficit to take control, winning three of the final four games to secure a 6-3 victory on Court 3. Wells and Goldammer battled in a back-and-forth contest on Court 2, responding each time they fell behind before breaking a 4-4 tie and closing out a 6-4 win.
With wins on Courts 2 and 3, BYU secured the doubles point and took a 1-0 lead into singles play, leaving Court 1 unfinished.
In singles, the Cougars turned to the same six-player lineup used in their previous victory, but UCF quickly seized momentum claiming the opening game on five of the six courts, with Hasler the lone Cougar to gain an early advantage.
Despite the early deficit, BYU fought to stay competitive across each court. Chodur and Goldammer each battled back to even their matches against ranked opponents, while Yubel Ubri erased a 3-0 deficit to tie his set at 3-3. Owen and David Duong also kept their matches tight, each winning three of four games to bring four courts across the board to 3-3, with the only exemptions being Goldammer down 4-2 while Hasler was leading 5-2.
Owen provided a bright spot for BYU, capturing his opening set 6-4. However, UCF responded by rallying on several courts, including winning three straight games to level Hasler’s set at 5-5 and pulling away late on Ubri to win 6-3.
The Knights ultimately secured first-set victories on five courts, including 6-4 wins over Duong and Goldammer. Chodur and Hasler were both in tiebreakers, but UCF prevailed in each to complete a near sweep of the opening sets.
Carrying that momentum into the second sets, the Knights closed out the match with four straight-set victories to secure the 4–1 team win, earning their second victory over the Cougars in three years
BYU will return home next week to face Texas Tech at the Outdoor Tennis Courts on Friday, March 27 at 5 p.m.
Doubles Results
- Yassine Dlimi/Paul Colin (UCF) vs. Adam Chodur/Otto Schreiner (BYU) 4-4, unfinished
- Tygen Goldammer/TJ Wells (BYU) def. Mehdi Benchakroun/Wissam Abderrahman (UCF) 6-4
- Caden Hasler/Hardy Owen (BYU) def. Luca Hotze/Nicolas Oliveira (UCF) 6-3
Singles Results
- Yassine Dlimi (UCF) def. Adam Chodur (BYU) 7-6 (7-2), 6-1
- Mehdi Benchakroun (UCF) def. Tygen Goldammer (BYU) 6-4, 6-3
- Paul Colin (UCF) def. David Duong (BYU) 6-4, 6-3
- Pedro Rodrigues (UCF) def. Yubel Ubri (BYU) 6-3, 6-2
- Nicolas Oliveira (UCF) vs. Caden Hasler (BYU) 7-6 (7-2), 2-5, unfinished
- Clement Lemire (UCF) vs. Hardy Owen (BYU) 4-6, 6-1, 1-0, unfinished