61st Annual Southern California Intercollegiate Championships
LOS ANGELES— BYU's Sam Tullis and Sean Hill qualified for the main singles draw on Thursday at the Southern California Intercollegiate Championships hosted by USC.
After both receiving a bye in the first round of the qualifying draw, No. 1 S. Tullis beat Joe Bray of Concordia 6-1, 5-7, 10-8, and No. 9 Hill earned a victory over UCSD’s Justin Zhang 6-2, 6-3. Both players will compete in the main draw on Friday.
“Win or lose, our guys are getting much-needed match play against great competition,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said.
Five Cougars competed in the Round of 32 for the singles qualifying draw. No. 9 Jeffrey Hsu fell to Antonio Pejic of Azusa Pacific University 6-4, 2-6, 10-7, after beating UCSD’s Ajai Shekhera 7-6, 6-2 in the first round. No. 5 John Pearce received a bye first round and then lost to UCSD’s Eric Tseng of UCSD 1-6, 6-1, 10-5. No. 5 Matthew Pearce fell to Jonathan Star of UC Davis 6-3, 6-1, after having a first-round bye.
Jacob Tullis lost to No. 3 Tanner Smith of USC 6-0, 6-1, after earning a victory over Marius Ruh of UCSD 2-6, 6-2, 10-5. Artsiom Ausiyevich lost to UC Irvine’s Mason Hansen 6-3, 3-6, 10-4, after beating Carter Juan of Loyola Marymount 5-7, 7-5, 10-5 earlier in the day. All five will compete in the singles consolation bracket.
Three Cougars fell to opponents in the first round of the singles qualifying draw. Ben Gajardo lost to David Goulak of UC Davis 6-4, 7-5. David Ball fell to UC Irvine’s Bruce Man-Son-Hing 6-4, 6-1. Victor Brown lost to No. 9 Ivan Thamma of UC Davis 6-4, 6-1. Gajardo, Ball and Brown will also compete in the singles consolation bracket.
All 10 BYU players will compete in doubles Friday afternoon and will continue in singles play. The tournament will continue Friday and Saturday. Results can be found here.