SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The BYU men’s tennis team was defeated by the University of California-Santa Barbara, 4-2, on the road Thursday afternoon. Due to wet courts, the doubles matches were not played.
“It was obvious that it was our first match outdoors at sea level for the season,” Cougar head coach Brad Pearce said. “We are used to playing inside with altitude. We played a good team today and I thought we did a good job for our first match out under those conditions.”
Georgy Batrakov started slow in the position No. 1 match but was able to close out in the end to defeat Benjamin Recknagel (6-3, 6-3) to give BYU an early point. In the No. 3 position Patrick Kawka was the only other Cougar to record a win in the match beating Greg Scott in three sets (6-3, 3-6, 7-5). Ultimately, Axel Bouillin was able to clinch the victory for UCSB with a victory over Keaton Cullimore in the position 4 match.
“We had some opportunities that we didn’t capitalize on,” Pearce said. “But I thought we did a good job and we’ll look to improve tomorrow against UCLA.”
The Cougars will take to the courts again tomorrow against UCLA at the Los Angeles Tennis Center at 2 p.m. PST. Live Stats are available online through UCLAbruins.com.
Results
Singles:
#1 Georgy Batrakov (BYU) def. Benjamin Recknagel (UCSB) 6-3, 6-3
#2 Matieu Forget (UCSB) def. Spencer Smith (BYU) 6-1, 6-1
#3 Patrick Kawka (BYU) def. Greg Scott (UCSB) 6-3, 3-6, 7-5
#4 Axel Bouillin (UCSB) def. Keaton Cullimore (BYU) 6-3, 1-6, 6-4
#5 Mbonisi Ndimande (UCSB) def. Francis Sargeant (BYU) 7-6, 6-3
#6 Ziad Sultan (UCSB) def. Michael Eraso (BYU) 6-2, 6-4