PROVO -- After jumping from No. 50 to No. 39 in the nation and securing the H. E. B. Tournament title, the BYU men’s tennis team prepares for its fourth-straight ranked matchup against No. 54 Boise State in Idaho.
The Cougars swept three ranked teams to claim the tournament title, downing No. 52 DePaul, No. 45 Maryland and former No. 54 Texas A&M, Corpus Christi. The team also took down No. 48 Denver the weekend before.
Mountain West Conference Player of the Week Georgy Batrakov was key to the Cougars’ three tournament wins, winning all three of his singles matches and both his doubles matches. Batrakov’s straight-set win against James Langford of Texas A&M C. C. was BYU’s first singles point of the match. The junior also finished first in doubles against DePaul and Texas A&M C. C. with doubles partner Thomas Shubert. Batrakov is 11-3 on the season in singles and 4-0 in doubles with Shubert.
Team captain Evan Urbina remains at the top of the Cougars with a 23-7 record. Urbina pairs up with Patrick Kawka to lead the team in doubles with a 16-7 record. Freshman Kawka holds a 21-7 singles record.
The Broncos (6-8), BYU’s region rivals, are on a three-match winning streak. No. 116 James Meredith is Boise State’s only ranked player and holds a 2-2 singles record and is 3-2 in doubles with Damian Hume. Andrew Bettles, Hume, Scott Sears and Freddy Walsh each have nine singles wins for the Broncos and Jeff Mullen and Nathan Sereke have eight doubles wins.
The match begins at 2 p.m. Saturday in Boise, Idaho.