By James Bates
The BYU men”s tennis team returned to Provo much earlier than expected after a disappointing performance in the Icy Hot/ITA Men”s All-American Championship in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Although the Cougars were able to gain valuable experience, head coach Brad Pearce said he felt his team could have performed much better.
“Overall, it has been a pretty disappointing tournament for our guys,” Pearce said. “As individuals, this gives our team a realistic picture of where they are at.”
This event is the largest national tournament in collegiate tennis. The Cougars competed against nearly every other Division-I A school in the nation.
BYU”s Erik Nyman and Richard Dasek were the lone bright spots as they performed well in the doubles tournament. They defeated a team from Louisiana State University, 9-8, in the second round. However, they faced much tougher competition Monday, Oct. 6, as they lost to two members of the Middle Tennessee State team, 8-3.
“Erik Nyman and Richard Dasek had a chance today to make it to the qualifying round, but that was a tough loss,” Pearce said.
The Cougar”s doubles teams of Tim Bradshaw and Christian Hand; Jose Luis Lechunga and Nima Roshan; and Alonza Medina and Michael Sperry were all ousted early on in the tournament.
Bradshaw and Hand were able to defeat a duo from Tennessee Tech in the first round of 128, 8-6. But they fell by the same score later in a difficult match against a pair from LSU.
“On a positive note, Erik Nyman is still in the tournament and the officials allowed our team to have Sunday off,” Pearce said. “We”ve seen some of the best players in the nation over the last week.”
Nyman did not have to compete in the pre-qualifying round of the singles tournament because he had already qualified. He will begin play on Tuesday morning and at time of publication, his opponent was not yet known.
Pearce said he hopes by playing in this event his team was able to see what collegiate tennis is all about. He said he is also hopeful that Nyman will do well in the rest of the singles tournament.
“We just need to work harder and get better,” Pearce said.
The team will now rest from competition for a couple of weeks until they return to action on Oct. 22 in the ITA/Omni Hotels Regional Championship in Las Vegas.
