PROVO -- A sweep of Idaho State at home gave the No. 65 BYU men’s tennis team its fifth win of the season. The Cougars have yet to lose a match at home this season.
“We felt like we were the stronger team going into it,” BYU coach Brad Pearce said.
After making some changes to the pairs lineup, the Cougars easily claimed the doubles point with wins on all three courts. The sophomore duo of Thomas Shubert and Evan Urbina started things off for BYU with an 8-0 victory at the No. 1 position.
Twosome Georgy Batrakov and A.J. Young secured the point with their 8-1 win. Cassidy Mears and Daniel Hwang struggled to gain an advantage over their opponents but eventually pulled out an 8-5 scoreline.
The freshmen took the lead in singles with Roman Warias and Batrakov putting BYU one win away from taking the match. Mears clinched the win after defeating Alex Buceta in straight sets on court four.
Shubert, Urbina and Hwang closed the match with three more wins, completing the sweep. With the win, the Cougars improve to 5-2 while the Bengals fall to 0-7.
“The competitive situation with a real match is hard to duplicate,” Pearce said. “We got exactly what we wanted out of this match, which is preparation for Friday.”
The Cougars will continue their homestand Friday against Santa Clara and No. 48 Denver. The first match begins at noon and the second match starts at 6 p.m.
Admission to the matches is free, and the team will make pizza and cookies available to fans. Both matches will take place at the BYU Indoor Tennis Courts, south of the Smith Fieldhouse. All BYU “Y Lot” parking lots are open to visitors after 4 p.m.
Match Results
BYU- 7
Idaho State-0
Doubles
1. Shubert/Urbina (BYU) def. DeChant/Royo (ISU) 8-0
2. Hwang/Mears (BYU) def. Barrenechea/Buceta (ISU) 8-5
3. Batrakov/Young (BYU) def. Buckingham/Kutchins (ISU) 8-1
BYU wins the doubles point—Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2
Singles
1. E. Urbina (BYU) def. J. Royo (ISU) 7-6 (7-4), 6-1
2. T. Shubert (BYU) def. D. Barrenechea (ISU) 6-1, 6-3
3. R. Warias (BYU) def. Mancera (ISU) 6-0, 6-0
4. C. Mears (BYU) def. A. Buceta (ISU) 6-1, 6-1*
5. G. Batrakov (BYU) def. R. DeChant (ISU) 6-0, 6-2
6. D. Hwang (BYU) D. Buckingham (ISU) 8-4
* denotes clinching the match—Order of Finish: 3, 5, 4, 2, 1, 6