PROVO, Utah – Senior Francis Sargeant continued to climb BYU’s all-time singles victories list, but the Cougars fell 4-2 in a tight contest to rival Utah Friday night in Provo in the Deseret First Duel.
After splitting the first two doubles matches, BYU (7-8, 1-0) forced a tiebreak in the third matchup, but Shane Monroe and Jeremy Bourgeois fell 7-6 (7-2) as Utah (8-5) grabbed the 1-0 lead. Jacob Sullivan and David Ball won at No. 2 doubles over Santiago Sierra and Johan Jonhagen 6-4. Sargeant and Andrey Goryachkov lost at No. 1 doubles to Cedric Willems and Matt Cowley 6-4.
Sargeant earned the Cougars’ first point with a dominating 6-0, 6-2 win over Willems at No. 1 singles. The victory was Sargeant’s 87th of his career, moving him into a tie for No. 6 on BYU’s all-time list.
The Utes jumped back into the lead when Parker McGuiness beat Goryachkov 7-5, 6-2, but Monroe evened the score quickly with a straight-set victory at No. 3 singles, beating Cowley 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) to tie the match at two.
Utah won the next two matchups to clinch the 4-2 victory in Provo. Bourgeois fell in three sets to Freddie McGeehan 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-2, and Aidan Carrazedo lost to Jonhagen at No. 5 singles 6-0, 4-6, 6-4.
The Cougars are back on the courts Saturday for a conference match with Santa Clara at the BYU indoor tennis courts in Provo at 5:30 p.m. MST. Live video and stats are available through the BYU men’s tennis schedule page.