PROVO, Utah — BYU sophomore Sean Hill advances to the quarterfinals in singles play at the USTA/ITA Mountain Regional tournament.
Hill upset No. 1 Dan Little of Utah 7-6(3), 6-3 in the Round of 32. Earlier in the day, he defeated Montana’s Ludvig Hallgren 6-3, 6-1. Hill will compete Friday at noon in the tournament’s quarterfinals.
“I am really pleased with the performances of our guys today,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “Everyone came out and competed as individuals and as a team. I’m not only pleased with the wins but just across the board. I felt like we became a team to be reckoned with today.”
All of the BYU doubles teams took victories in Thursday’s matches. Junior Jeffrey Jsu and Hill advance to the Round of 16 after beating No. 13 Stefan Cooper and Kris Van Wyk of Weber State, 8-4. Sophomores Sam Tullis and David Ball will also advance to the Round of 16 Friday morning after an 8-4 win over Paul Hendrix and Jamie Bautista of Air Force.
In the doubles consolation bracket, three Cougar teams advance to Friday morning play. Senior John Pearce and freshman Jacob Tullis beat Conor Tordoff and Jonathan Morales of SUU 8-4 Thursday morning. Junior Matthew Pearce and freshman Ben Gajardo beat Northern Colorado’s Nick Wade and Ryan Hardin 8-3. Freshman Artsiom Ausiyevich and sophomore Victor Brown had a bye and will compete Friday morning.
After seeing wins in three rounds of singles, Hsu and S. Tullis fell in their matches Thursday night. Hsu beat No. 19 Jose Fernando Carvajal of Utah State 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the Round of 32. He then lost to No. 3 Ricky Hernandez Tong of New Mexico 7-5, 7-6(4). S. Tullis earned a victory over No. 17 Lucas Taylor of Northern Arizona 5-7, 6-4, 6-2. He fought hard and lost in a close match to No. 2 David Micevski of Utah 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-4.
The Cougars saw success in the singles consolation bracket Thursday. J. Tullis beat Boise State’s Ryland McDermott 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-5. No. 18 J. Pearce earned a victory over No. 15 Jack Heslin of Boise State 7-6(3), 7-5 to continue in the consolation bracket. Earlier in the day, he defeated Montana State’s Creel Smith 6-3, 6-2. No. 21 M. Pearce beat Tim Heslin of Boise State 6-2, 6-2 to also advance in the consolation bracket. He came off a win against Montana State’s Rok Sitar 6-2, 7-5 in the afternoon Thursday.
Gajardo beat Conor Tordoff of SUU 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the consolation bracket. He then lost to No. 25 Nevada’s Kostya Nesterenko 7-6(4), 6-0. Ball earned a 6-4, 6-3 win over Montana’s Max Korkh Thursday afternoon. He then fell to Hou-En Chen of Weber State 6-4, 6-2. Ausiyevich fell to Paul Hendrix of Air Force 5-7, 7-6(3), 10-8.
The USTA/ITA Regionals continues all day Friday and Saturday, and the event is free to the public.