61st Annual Southern California Intercollegiate Championships
LOS ANGELES – Three BYU doubles teams qualified in the second day of the Southern California Intercollegiate Championships hosted by USC.
No. 5 seed Sean Hill and Jeffrey Hsu defeated Nikita Katsnelson and Florian Mayer of Concordia 8-3, after coming off a first-round bye. Sam Tullis and David Ball beat Joe Bray and Otto Heinz of Concordia 8-4 in the second round of the qualifying draw, after earning a victory over Cameron Backman and Alan Leahy of Azusa Pacific University 8-3 earlier in the day. Ben Gajardo and Jacob Tullis beat No. 5 seed Tommy Lam and Everett Maltby of UC Davis 8-4, after beating UCSB’s Chase Masciorini and Ajai Shekhera 8-7(4) in the first round. The three doubles teams will compete in the main draw Saturday afternoon.
“We won some today, and we lost some,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “But the most important thing at this time of the year is that our guys are competing and getting great match experience. That’s why we’re here.”
Two BYU doubles teams move to the consolation bracket after falling in close matches. No. 4 seed John and Matthew Pearce fell to Mitchell Iwahiro and Jonathan Star of UC Davis 8-6, after earning a first-round bye. Artsiom Ausiyevich and Victor Brown lost to Antonio Pejic and Marnix Pluim 8-5 in the first round.
In singles play, Tullis fell to USC’s Thibault Forget 6-3, 6-3, and Hill lost to Logan Smith of USC 7-6, 6-1 in the first round of the main draw. Both will compete in the main draw singles consolation bracket Saturday.
Hsu, M. Pearce, J. Pearce, Brown, Ball and Gajardo will compete Saturday in the qualifying singles consolation bracket.