PROVO -- The No. 66 BYU men's tennis team (8-8) lost to No. 19 Boise State (17-5) in Boise Thursday, 5-2. Freshman Cassidy Mears won in both singles and doubles competition while a number of other Cougars were mere points away from turning the tide against the Broncos.
"We had our chance to take it to them, but we let them slip by," Mears said after the match. "We had a chance to beat a really good team and we just let it slip through our hands. They are a team that always comes out fired up and we were the ones who did that today, we just didn't finish it off."
Mears won 8-2 at no. 3 doubles with sophomore Cale Planck over Boise State's Blake Boswell and Eric Roberson. Seniors James Ludlow and Dominik Kaufhold lost their doubles match at no. 1 doubles in a tiebreak against of Luke Shields and Piotr Dilaj, the No. 33 duo in the nation, which would have given BYU the doubles point.
Senior Chip Hand beat Dilaj in no. 3 singles in a tiebreaker for one of BYU's team points and Mears beat Brent Werbeck in a tiebreaker at no. 6 singles for the other BYU team point. No. 105 Ludlow was not able to upset No. 13 L. Shields in no. 1 singles and Kaufhold lost in a tiebreaker to Clancy Shields at no. 2 doubles.
Boise State has now beaten 12 teams in the top 75 this season and its only five losses have come against teams ranked in the top 20. In the regional competition in the fall, BYU finished a close second to Boise State in the Mountain Region.
The Cougars will head to California to face off against No. 61 Stanford on Monday and No. 63 Santa Clara on Tuesday in their last matches before conference play begins in San Diego against UNLV Thursday, New Mexico Friday, and TCU Saturday. The team's next home match will be against The University of Utah on April 14 in the teams' last match before the conference tournament.
Match Results
No. 19 Boise State 5, No. 66 BYU 2
Mar. 22
Appleton Tennis Center
Boise, Idaho
Singles
1. Luke Shields (BSU) d. James Ludlow (BYU), 6-4, 6-2
2. Clancy Shields (BSU) d. Dominik Kaufhold (BYU), 4-6, 6-3, 10-5
3. Chip Hand (BYU) d. Piotr Dilaj (BSU), 6-3, 4-6, 11-9
4. Blake Boswell (BSU) d. Jonathan Sanchez (BYU), 6-2, 6-1
5. Eric Roberson (BSU) d. Cale Planck (BYU), 6-3, 6-3
6. Cassidy Mears (BYU) d. Brent Werbeck (BSU), 6-4, 2-6, 10-7
Doubles
1. Dilaj/Shields (BSU) d. Kaufhold/Ludlow, 9-8 (2)
2. Sarapanich/Shields (BSU) d. Hand/Sanchez, 8-5
3. Mears/Planck (BYU) d. Boswell/Roberson (BSU), 8-2