Men’s tennis looks for second conference win against San Diego

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The No. 39 BYU men’s tennis team will play its second conference match of the season Saturday against No. 47 San Diego at the indoor tennis courts.

The Cougars stand 11–4 overall and 1–0 in the West Coast Conference. In the HEB Tournament in Texas last week the Cougars fell to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and South Alabama. So while BYU has struggled on the road, it currently holds a 7–0 record at home. The Cougars won five straight home matches in February.

Patrick Kawka hits returns the ball during a match against Weber State. BYU faces UNLV and Denver this weekend. (Photo by Chris Bunker)
Patrick Kawka returns the ball during a match against Weber State. BYU plays San Diego this weekend. (Photo Chris Bunker)

“San Diego’s a good team,” BYU coach Brad Pearce said. “We’ll be ready for them and hopefully the outcome goes our way.”

One key to the Cougars success at home has been the doubles play of junior Patrick Kawka and sophomore Francis Sargeant. They began playing doubles together this season and have developed an impressive chemistry that has them ranked No. 50 in the nation.

In conference play, BYU defeated Santa Clara 4–3 in a match that came down to the wire. This weekend’s match against San Diego will be the second conference match for BYU and the first for San Diego. In the 2013 preseason polls San Diego was picked to finish second in the WCC, two spots ahead of BYU.

San Diego is 6–3 on the season and brings two nationally ranked players into the match — No. 82 Clarke Spinosa and No.12 Uros Petronijevic.

The match begins at 1:30 p.m. Admission is free and pizza will be provided for spectators.

 

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