BYU comes back to win late in match

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Andrey Goraychkov returns a serve during a BYU home match. Photo by Jaren Wilkey/BYU
Andrey Goraychkov returns a serve during a BYU home match. (Photo by Jaren Wilkey/BYU)

BYU tennis fought hard for its first conference win with a comeback after initially falling behind 3-0 to Pacific.

The match was tied 3-3 as sophomore Andrey Goryachkov won the first set 6-3 over Pacific’s Daniel Alameh. Goryachkov lost the second, creating suspense for the team and viewers, but he scraped by his opponent 7-5 in the third, making the final score 4-3 in favor of BYU.

“It was great to get a win today,” said BYU head coach Brad Pearce. “The guys battled hard. Being down after the doubles point, it was great to come back and get the win, especially on my birthday.”

The Tigers almost won early in the match by taking the doubles point and beating their opponents at fourth and third singles, making the initial score 0-3.

Freshman Jacob Sullivan earned BYU’s first point against Lance Ngo, and junior and team caption Francis Sargeant earned another with a difficult win over Sem Verbeek.

Freshman Matthew Pearce tied the match at 3-3 by beating Alex Hamilton, giving Goryachkov the opportunity to get the victory for BYU.

“At this point I don’t care how ugly or how pretty the match was — it’s important to get in the win column,” Pearce said. “Right now we have a perfect record in conference.”

BYU men’s tennis will remain in California for its match against Saint Mary’s Saturday at noon (PDT).

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