By Daniel Singer
BERKELEY, Calif. – The BYU men”s tennis team was trounced by the California Golden Bears 7-0 in a match Monday afternoon March 24.
The Cougar”s only win came from the doubles duo of senior Carlos Lozano and junior Erik Nyman. Lozano and Nyman are the No. 10 doubles team in the nation.
Coach Jim Osborne was pleased with the play of his top two players.
“Erik and Panda (Lozano) are (competitive) with any of the best players in the nation,” Osborne said.
Nyman and Lozano both nearly won their singles matches.
Nyman had an opportunity to win at the No. 1 singles spot, holding match point in the third set, but eventually fell to the No. 38 player in the country Conor Niland.
Lozano was up 6-2 in the tiebreaker of the first set, then double faulted and lost the first-set tiebreaker. Lozano then lost the second set 6-1.
“When you play against a good player, if you give them an opening at all they will jump all over it,” Osborne said of Lozano”s second-set collapse.
The lower-seeded Cougar”s did not come as close to beating their Cal opponents.
“The No. 3, 4, 5 and 6 matches were done pretty quickly,” Osborne said. “We need our bottom seeds to be more competitive if we want to be ranked with the top teams in the nation.”
Sophomore Jose Lechuga lost 6-3, 6-0 at the No. 3 singles spot.
Junior Alonso Medina fell to the No. 41 player in the country Robert Kowalczyk 6-2, 6-2.
Senior Jeff Olsen lost 6-1 and 6-3, while senior Anton Rudjuk lost at the No. 6 spot 6-1 and 6-1.
The No. 59 Cougars have been inconsistent all year in their doubles play. BYU had won five of the last six doubles points in match play prior to Monday.
“Our second and third seed doubles teams were beaten pretty quickly,” Osborne said.
Lechuga and Rudjuk lost at the No. 2 doubles spot 8-3. Medina and Olsen lost at the No. 3 doubles spot 8-1.
Yet, Osborne was encouraged about the upcoming Mountain West Conference season after seeing the team compete against a top-10 team.
“We didn”t play badly,” Osborne said. “They (Cal) are a very good team. I think the match will make us better prepared to play well against our conference opponents.”
Before BYU faces its MWC foes, they have three more tough battles this week.
The Cougars face No. 8 Stanford Wednesday, then travel to Boise to face No. 50 Fresno State on Wednesday and No. 51 Boise State on Saturday.
“We need to regroup and get ready to play Stanford on Wednesday,” Osborne said. “They will be just as tough as Cal was.”
Stanford features three nationally-ranked singles players and a nationally-ranked doubles team.
The Cougars dropped to 7-4 on the season after Monday”s loss. Cal is now 12-1 on the season, its best start in nearly 15 years.
The Cougars will play at home April 3 as they start MWC play against Utah.
