PROVO, Utah—A 7-0 sweep Friday night at home over Northern Arizona kept the BYU men’s tennis team perfect in the 2016 season at 6-0.
"To me, this is a more satisfying win than our last when we lost the doubles point," BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. "We put it all together tonight. We came out and we did what we're supposed to do. We got the point and we didn't let up. It was a good all-around team effort. We supported each other and played until the last man. It was a great way to end our home series of matches.
BYU (6-0) took control of the match against NAU (0-1) early by winning the doubles point. Shane Monroe and Jeremy Bourgeois got things started for the Cougars, winning the first match against the Lumberjacks’ Ruben Montano and Tim Handel 6-2. Two minutes later, John Pearce and Keaton Cullimore defeated NAU’s Eden Peleg and Thomas Fisher 6-2. Andrey Goryachkov and Jacob Sullivan’s match against the Lumberjacks’ Lucas Taylor and Felix Shumann was suspended at 5-3 in favor of BYU, as the doubles point had already been secured by the Cougars.
Cullimore carried the momentum into singles play for BYU, and won the second point of the night by beating Montano 6-0, 6-1. Monroe followed with the third point for the Cougars by beating Handel 6-4, 6-0. Goryachkov defeated Taylor 6-3, 6-4 for the next point and Sullivan added a three-set thriller 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (18-8) to put BYU up by five. Pearce’s 6-3, 6-4 victory over Peleg and Bourgeois’s 6-3, 6-2 win over NAU’s Jackson Lee earned the last two points for the Cougars to complete the sweep.
The Cougars head to Colorado for their next two matches. They will play Air Force on Friday, Feb. 5 and the University of Denver Saturday, Feb. 6. Both matches will begin at 5:30 p.m. MST. Results for the matches can be found on the BYU men’s tennis home page.