By Kyle Cottam
A 1-10 record is not the kind of record men''s tennis head coach Brad Pearce hoped to have in his inaugural season with the team. However, most first year coaches don''t take on the quality of teams the Cougars are facing this year.
'I would rather be competing against some of the best teams in the nation, than play a schedule against teams that would carry over as a winning record for our team,' Pearce said.
The Cougars began the season strong with a clean sweep against in-state rivals Utah State 7-0. Since then, the team has lost 10 straight games against ranked opponents, while suffering injuries to seasoned starters Richard Dasek and Jose Lechuga.
Dasek complained of shoulder problems early in the season and withdrew from matches against the University of Louisiana-Lafayette Jan. 30, 2004. Doctors identified the problem and Dasek has been recovering. He recently returned to practice with the team.
Pearce said he hopes to have Dasek return to the line-up as early as next weekend''s match-up with UC Santa Barbara Friday.
Lechuga broke his foot while practicing before the season began. He has continued to improve, but Pearce plans on red-shirting Lechuga in order to extend his eligibility two more years.
The injuries have caused Pearce to shake up the line-up with lower classmen playing heavier roles and logging more matches than was expected. Players expected to be playing in the lower seeding have moved up to higher seeds causing their records to suffer.
Despite the losing records, individual players have logged some big wins. Freshman Chip Hand has upset wins over Chris Lam from the No. 8 UCLA Bruins, Yevgen Bondarchuk from the No. 33 Oklahoma State Cowboys and Marcus Schiller from the No. 50 Oregon Ducks.
Newcomers Ivan Kokurin, a transfer from Uzbekistan, and Dominik Kaufhold, a transfer from Germany, have also pulled out wins over tough opponents.
Kokurin scored the only other point for the Cougars vs. the Oregon Ducks with a win over Aaron Spencer. Kaufhold logged the only point for the Cougars against the No. 26 Washington Huskies with an upset win over Nick Weiss in three sets.
After the latest matches with Oklahoma State and Tulsa, Pearce said he was still working hard to encourage his team to do their best.
'We don''t look for excuses,' Pearce said. 'Certainly as coaches we don''t give them excuses, we just have to make the best of the situation. It is a little challenging, but nevertheless we are going to go out and do our best.'
The Cougars have had a week off since the latest loss to No. 33 Oklahoma State March 8. The team will once again be on the road to face their next opponent No. 72 UC Santa Barbara in Indian Wells Friday.
The schedule doesn''t get any easier through the end of the month with tough road match ups with No. 22 Arizona State, No. 29 California and No. 5 Stanford.