61st Annual Southern California Intercollegiate Championships
LOS ANGELES— The BYU men’s tennis team finished strong Saturday at the Southern California Intercollegiate Championships hosted by USC.
Doubles team Jeffrey Hsu and Sean Hill reached the semifinals before having to forfeit the match because it was scheduled to be played on Sunday. The pair won their first-round doubles match due to injury of No. 1 seed Max Cressy and Keegan Smith of UCLA. Hsu and Hill went on to earn a victory over fellow BYU teammates Jacob Tullis and Ben Gajardo 8-3 in the quarterfinals of the main doubles draw. Before reaching the quarterfinals, J. Tullis and Gajardo beat Connor Johnston and Gabe Tishman of Michigan 8-5.
“I love how our guys competed and represented at the tournament this year,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “This was a well-run tournament by the Southern California Tennis Association, the weather was great and USC was a great host. We look forward to returning next year.”
BYU's David Ball and Sam Tullis fell to UCSB’s Simon Freund and Joseph Rotheram 8-4 in the first round of the doubles main draw.
In the singles main consolation bracket, Hill lost to UCSB’s Simon Freund 7-5, 6-4 in the first round. S. Tullis withdrew from his match against Bruce Man-Son-Hing of UC Irvine, after beating UCSD’s Eric Tseng 6-2, 6-3 in the first round because of personal circumstances.
In the singles qualifying consolation bracket, Hsu advanced to the semifinals before having to forfeit the match because it was scheduled on Sunday. He beat UCSB’s Joseph Rotheram 6-2, 6-2 earlier that day and advanced past the first-round due to injury of Azusa Pacific University’s Cameron Backman. The Cougars Victor Brown fell to Ajai Shekhera 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of singles consolation play. BYU's Ball fell to LMU’s Ryan Brown 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of singles consolation play. John Pearce did not finish his match with Vatsal Bajpai of UC Irvine due to injury.
Gajardo withdrew from his match against UCSB’s Ajai Shekhera for personal circumstances in the qualifying consolation bracket, after beating Marnix Pluim of Azusa Pacific University 6-1, 6-3. Matthew Pearce beat USD’s Garrett Kurtz 6-2, 6-3 in the first round. He withdrew from his second match against LMU’s Ryan Brown in the tie-breaker, with the score of the sets being 6-2, 2-6 for personal circumstances.
BYU men's tennis will return to competition in January. Sophomore Sean Hill will represent the Cougars individually at the ITA National Fall Championships in Indian Wells, Calif., Nov. 1-5.