Men’s tennis battles rain in victory over South Florida

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The No. 57 BYU men’s tennis team defeated No. 50 South Florida 4–0 in a rain-shortened match Saturday at Sycamore Courts on UCLA’s campus during the ITA Kick-off Weekend.

The match was originally going to be played Friday afternoon, but severe rain in Los Angeles caused the match to be postponed until Saturday morning. The match was again postponed with the rain still coming down Saturday morning. The Cougars and Bulls were finally able to take the court in the afternoon.

BYU’s win on Saturday takes them to 5–0 overall on the season — with two wins over higher-ranked opponents — and dropped South Florida to 2–1 on the season.

“I was really proud of our guys for clinching the win today,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said in a release. “Due to the strange weather, the match became a very tough, physical battle.”

BYU Tennis team defeats South Florida (Photo by Sarah Hill)

The Cougars and Bulls opened doubles play by splitting the first two matches. The Cougar duo of sophomore Keaton Cullimore and John Pearce won 8–3, while USF’s duo defeated junior Travis Fillmore and senior Spencer Smith 8–4. With

the doubles point on the line, BYU’s Patrick Kawka and Francis Sargeant hung on for an 8–7 win.

With the doubles point secured the Cougars only needed three wins in singles play to give them the victory. They got the three victories before USF could pick up a point.

Smith defeated USF’s Oliver Pramming 7–6, 6–1. Kawka beat Ignacio Gonzalez 6–4, 6–2 to pick up a point for BYU and remain undefeated on the season. Sargeant also won for BYU, defeating Ravi Patel 6–3, 6–3.

Because of the weather the match was called once the Cougars got up 4–0 and the other three matches did not finish.

BYU will play Air Force at home on Feb. 2, at 5:30 p.m.

 

 

 

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