LOS -- After a strong season start last weekend, the No. 38 BYU men’s tennis team fell to No. 6 UCLA 7-0—the first loss of the season—Friday evening.
“I thought we were well prepared,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “I’m proud of the way the guys prepared. They really competed and fought hard.”
UCLA took the doubles point, with Amit Inbar and Adrien Puget downing Cougars No. 44 Thomas Shubert and Spencer Smith 8-3. The other two Cougar duos also lost: Patrick Kawka and Evan Urbina 8-2 to Alex Brigham and Holden Seguso, Georgy Batrakov and Daniel Hwang to Daniel Kosakowski and Clay Thompson 8-3.
In singles, No. 110 Urbina pushed his match against No. 86 Inbar to three sets after winning the first and losing the second. Inbar took the final match, to end 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Batrakov also gave his opponent trouble after pushing the match to a tie with a 6-1 Cougar win in the second set. Batrakov fought hard in the final set, but Thompson pulled ahead for a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 UCLA victory.
“I think we have nothing to hang our heads about,” Pearce said. “UCLA is a great team. We just got beat.”
The netters head to San Diego to take on the University of San Diego Saturday at 2:30 p.m. MT. The match will be part of San Diego’s home opener and will follow San Diego’s match up with UC San Diego.
At the last meeting between the Cougars and No. 58 San Diego in 2010, BYU came away with a 6-1 victory.
This season, the Toreros boast the No. 7 doubles duo Dean Jackson and Patrick Pohlmann. Jackson is also No. 31 in singles.
The Cougars have two ranked doubles teams and two ranked singles players. Besides Shubert and Smith, Smith and Hwang ranked No. 41 in the nation. Urbina is joined in national ranking with No. 88 Patrick Kawka.
“After tonight, we’ll build on what we did well and I think we’ll be ready for San Diego,” Pearce said. “They’re a good, solid team, but we’re hoping to get some wins.”
No. 38 BYU vs. No. 6 UCLA
BYU-0 UCLA-7
Doubles
1. Inbar/Puget (UCLA) def. No. 44 Shubert/Smith (BYU) 8-3
2. Brigham/Sugeso (UCLA) def. Kawka/Urbina (BYU) 8-2
3. Kosakowski/Thompson (UCLA) def. Batrakov/Hwang (BYU) 8-3
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2
Singles
1. D. Kosakowski (UCLA) def. T. Shubert (BYU) 6-2, 6-3
2. No. 86 A. Inbar (UCLA) def. No. 110 E. Urbina (BYU) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3
3. No. 64 M. Tabatruong (UCLA) def. S. Smith (BYU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-0
4. C. Thompson (UCLA) def. G. Batrakov (BYU) 6-3, 1-6, 6-4
5. A. Brigham (UCLA) def. No. 88 P. Kawka (BYU) 6-4, 6-1
6. H. Seguso (UCLA) def. D. Hwang (BYU) 7-6, 6-1
Order of finish: 5, 1, 6, 3, 2, 4