The No. 66 BYU men’s tennis lost 4-3 to No. 45 Boise State in the final match Saturday at the Indoor Tennis Courts in Provo.
“Overall I was really proud of our guys,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “Our goal was to come out and be shock-and-awe in the doubles point. We came out and we took it to them.”
The Cougars started strong in doubles play, winning two of the three matches. Team captain Francis Sargeant and sophomore Andrey Goryachkov lost 6-3; however, the BYU freshmen would quickly turn the momentum back in favor of the Cougars.
Sterling Gall and Jeremy Bourgeois tied up doubles play first with a 6-2 win over their opponents, and their fellow freshmen, Matthew Pearce and Robin Pfister, followed suit with another strong win, 6-2, over the Broncos, winning the doubles play point.
In singles play, Sargeant rebounded with a hard-fought win over Andy Bettles, winning the match in two sets, 6-5 (7-4), 6-3. After losing the first set 6-3, Goryachkov swung his way back to victory winning the next two sets 6-4, 6-4.
The cougars were one match away from winning the meet.
Pfister played hard, but was bested by Thomas Tenreiro in just two sets, losing 6-5 (7-4), 6-3. Bourgeois and Aidan Carrazedo were then both defeated in two sets. The Broncos had tied-up the score 3-3.
One match remained, and freshman Pearce held his own, taking the match to three sets, but eventually fell to Bronco Brendan McClain, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
“I was really proud of Matthew that he hung tough up until the last game of the third set and Brendan stepped up and beat him,” Pearce said. “He hit some big shots. I was really proud that he didn’t beat himself.”
BYU travels to Las Vegas to play UNLV Friday at noon PST, and then match-up against San Diego State Saturday at 10 a.m.
