PROVO, Utah, (Jan. 19, 2011)—With two wins already secured, the No. 38 BYU men’s tennis team heads to No. 6 UCLA for its first away match of the season.
“UCLA is a powerhouse program,” said BYU head coach Brad Pearce, who played for UCLA in 1985 and 1986. “We’ve been talking about and getting ready for this match all of fall season.”
Last weekend the Cougars went 2-0 against in-state rivals Weber State and Utah State, only dropping one singles match in the process. The Cougars swept both teams in doubles.
No. 110 Evan Urbina defeated Weber State’s Simon Unger in the No. 1 position, battling in three sets for the win. His next opponent on court No. 1, Utah State’s Sven Poslusny, fell in straight sets to the Cougar, who received MWC player of the week honors for his performance.
No. 43 duo Thomas Shubert and Spencer Smith took down both their doubles opponents on court No. 1, beating Weber State’s Unger and Peter Ramstromer Pello 8-2 and Utah State’s Poslusny and Bryan Marchant 8-6.
UCLA’s top-ranked player, No. 24 Nick Meister, won’t participate in Friday’s matchup due to an injury, but ranked teammates No. 64 Maxime Tabatruong and No. 86 Amit Inbar will be there to challenge the Cougars.
The teams last met in 2009, with UCLA winning 7-0.
The matchup begins at 2:30 p.m. MT in Los Angeles. For live stats, click here.