BYU Men’s Tennis Struggles in SoCal

The BYU Men’s Tennis team is an exciting and unique one featuring players from Australia, Taiwan, and even Alabama. Head Coach Zack Warren and Assistant Coach Jonathan Sanchez are both in their first year at BYU as well. Coach Warren was an Assistant Coach at Cal from 2014-2023 and Coach Sanchez was Head Coach at Concordia from 2010-2023.

The Cougars were in Southern California on Thursday and Friday facing Loyola Marymount & UC Irvine respectively. They also made pitstops at the Los Angeles temple & the Los Angeles Tennis Club earlier in the week.

On Thursday, BYU fell 4-3 to LMU.

The doubles results are as follows:

1. Wally Thayne/Zach Fuchs (BYU) vs. Sebastian Nothhaft/Toky Ranaivo (LMU) 5-5, unf.

Fuchs and Thayne (ranked 35th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association end of fall rankings) played well against Nothhaft and Ranaivo the entire match. The Lions held serve to knot the score at 5-5 before the stoppage.

2. Max Wuelfing/Arthur Pantino (LMU) def. Jack Barnett/Redd Owen (BYU) 6-4

 Up 5-4 and serving, LMU had a couple of powerful serves that went unreturned to win the team doubles point.

3. Yassine Smiej/Tygen Goldammer (LMU) def. Tygen Goldammer/TJ Wells (BYU) 6-4

Loyola Marymount jumped out to a 5-3 lead. Freshman duo Tygen Goldammer (from Tuscaloosa, AL) and TJ Wells (from Alpine, UT) then held serve to make it 4-5 before LMU did the same to claim the match 6-4.

And here are the results from singles in which BYU had a bit more success.

1. Yassine Smiej (LMU) def. Jack Barnett (BYU) 6-4, 6-4

LMU countered to take the lead as Barnett (from Australia) fell on court one to Smiej 6-4, 6-4.

2. Wally Thayne (BYU) def. Sebastian Nothhaft (LMU) 6-2, 6-2

The Cougars tied things up with a victory at No. 2 singles, where Thayne took down Nothhaft in straight sets.

3. Arthur Pantino (LMU) def. Zach Fuchs (BYU) 6-4, 6-3

The Lions went up 3-1 after Pantino defeated Fuchs 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in a back-and-forth battle at No. 3 singles.

4. Redd Owen (BYU) def. Toky Ranaivo (LMU) 6-2, 5-7, 11-9

With the LMU team victory decided, attention turned to courts four and six. In Owen’s first set, he held serve to take a 4-2 lead. The sophomore from Sandy, UT then broke serve to go up 5-2 and win the first set. It was tied at 3 early in the second set, but Owen ended up losing 5-7 before emerging on top in a 11-9 super tiebreaker.

5. Max Wuelfing (LMU) def. Tygen Goldammer (BYU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3

With the three remaining matches in third sets, LMU clinched the dual match on court five as Goldammer dropped a three set match to Weulfing.

6. David Duong (BYU) def. Alex Padro Parra (LMU) 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-4

Duong’s first career victory at No. 6 singles was a gritty match. The freshman cruised to a 6-2 first set win followed by a tough, 7-5 tiebreaker defeat in the second set. The third set went back and forth with Duong winning 6-4.

“Despite some challenging conditions, we fought very well on all the courts and played with a lot of heart today,” said BYU men’s tennis assistant coach Jonathan Sanchez. 

On Friday, the Cougars went over to Anteater Tennis Stadium at UC Irvine and lost 6-1, falling to 1-3 on the season.

This was the fourth road match of the season for the squad.

Doubles went as follows:

1. No. 35 Zach Fuchs/Wally Thayne (BYU) def. Brandon Park/Noah Zamora (UCI) 6-4
2. Andy Nguyen/Hiroki Sakagawa (UCI) def. Jack Barnett/Redd Owen (BYU) 7-6 (8-6)
3. Enrique Luque Rico/Matthew Sah (UCI) def. Tygen Goldammer/TJ Wells (BYU) 7-5

And here’s how singles went:

1. Enrique Luque Rico (UCI) def. Jack Barnett (BYU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
2. Wally Thayne (BYU) def. Hiroki Sakagawa (UCI) 6-4, 7-5
3. Noah Zamora (UCI) def. Redd Owen (BYU) 6-4, 6-4
4. Andy Nguyen (UCI) def. Zach Fuchs (BYU) 5-7, 7-6 (7-1), 10-3
5. Rithvik Krishna (UCI) def. Tygen Goldammer (BYU) 6-4, 6-3
6. Lawee Sherif (UCI) def. David Duong (BYU) 6-2, 6-3

Up next for the team is a two-game home stretch at the Indoor Tennis Courts, their first home game(s) of the season. They will face Omaha (2-3) on Tuesday the 30th and then Montana State (4-0), who is coming off a dominant performance against Whitworth over the weekend, on Saturday February 3rd.