The BYU men's tennis team brought fierce competition to the Utah Intercollegiate tennis tournament starting on Oct. 10 in Salt Lake City.
Players in the tournament included the tennis talent from Utah State, Weber State and Utah.
BYU tennis player Francis Sargeant prepares for a backhand serve at practice. (Photo courtesy BYU Athletics)
'This is the first competition after practicing for a few weeks,' said head tennis coach Brad Pearce. 'We're looking to see how we have improved and how the improvement holds up in match competition.'
After the first day, the Cougars proved their hard work payed off as five players advanced to the next round. As opposed to the last tournament the Cougars played in, this tournament was organized in a series of three draws: red, white and black.
Andrey Goryachkov competed in the red draw and defeated Utah's Cedric Willem 7-5, 6-3. Francis Sargeant advanced in the red draw by defeating Weber State's Oliver Good 6-4, 6-4 and BYU's Jacob Sullivan lost to Utah's Ben Tasevace 6-2, 6-1.
The next day Goryachkov was defeated by Slim Hamza of Utah 7-6, 6-3, and Sullivan lost in the consolation tournament to Weber's Oliver Good 6-3, 6-4.
Sargeant came out on top by beating Ben Tasevac from Utah 7-6, 6-3 and progressed to face off against Slim in the final singles title match. In the final match Sargeant lost against slim 6-4, 6-4.
In the white draw, the first day consisted of Jeremy Bourgeois outplaying Utah State's Dylan Harlow 6-1, 6-1 and Nikki Rae was excused from play the first round.
On Oct. 11, Rae played Curran Wearmouth from Utah State and lost 7-6, 6-2. Bourgeois started off strong against Utah State's Andrew Whiting but ended up losing the match 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
In the black draw, BYU's Juan Canales defeated Utah's Cameron Lee 7-6, 6-3, and Sterling Galli was defeated by Weber State's Caio Poitena 6-7, 6-4, 6-4.
Galli and Canales continued to play in the consolation round the next day, but Canales suffered a defeat at the hands of Utah's Devin Lane 6-4, 3-1 along with Galli, who was outplayed by Pearce 6-4, 6-3.
The doubles portion of the tournament was split into an A and B group. In the A group Sargeant and Goryachkov united to beat Matt Sweet and Andrew Whiting from Utah 8-5. Galli and Sullivan played two different opponents, losing to Utah's Slim Hamza and Devin Lane 8-4 but winning against Sweet and Whiting 8-3.
On Oct. 11 Sargeant and Goryachkov carried their momentum from the previous day to beat Lee and Willems from Utah with a close victory of 8-7. Sargeant and Goryachkov also defeated fellow teammates of Sullivan and Galli 8-7 and continued on to the doubles final match.
Sargeant and Goryachkov then secured a victory in the tournament by defeating Hamza and Lane in a close match of 8-6.
The B group consisted of Bourgeois and Matt Pearce defeating fellow BYU teammates Rae and Canales 8-6. Pearce and Bourgeois then lost to James Smith and Good from Weber State 8-4.
The next day Rae and Canales split their matches against Utah's Tesevac and Alejandro Medinilla 8-7 but then suffered defeat by the hands of Utah State's Dylan Harlow and Wearmouth 8-5.