It had been almost a month since BYU men's tennis (7-1) had played in Provo, but the Cougars didn’t disappoint, claiming a 6-1 victory over Idaho State (4-5) in front of their home crowd.
Returning home from a six-game road stint that took them from the West Coast to the East Coast, the Cougars' last home match was against Weber State on Jan. 17.
The Cougars began the day with two doubles wins, taking an early 1-0 lead over the Bengals. As a result, BYU didn’t need its top doubles team, Zach Fuchs and Wally Thayne, to finish their match.
That match was gearing up to be a nail-biter considering Fuchs and Thayne were down 5-4. But instead of using up energy to win, both were able to go focus on their upcoming single matchups thanks to the stellar play of their teammates.
Despite taking an early lead and remaining undefeated, the Cougars needed to stay focused against a Bengals team that had been competitive recently, winning 4-3 against UNLV and narrowly losing 3-4 to Utah State the day before their matchup with BYU.
But BYU remained focused, securing the win over Idaho State shortly after its third singles match — featuring a top-rated showdown between Thayne and Valentino DePellegri — concluded.
“We knew we had to be prepared, we were completely focused and ready to go,” said coach Zack Warren.
While waiting for the game deciding matchup between Thayne and DePellegri, BYU’s first single wins would come from Fuchs and teammate Adam Chodur.
Chodur won the first singles matchup of the day for BYU, 6-3, 6-2, despite starting after both Fuchs and Thayne.
Soon after Chodur's win, Fuchs, who had bounced back from a personal loss against Lehigh the week before, continued delivering aces with his strong service game in his own victory. He won with a final score of 6-2, 6-3.
“He was focused on today and he played some big tennis,” said Warren. “He’s got the biggest serve in the country, which is helpful. He was fired up today. I don’t know how many aces [Fuchs] had out there, but there was probably ten plus at least. He played great and proud of him for being resilient.”
With a 3-0 lead and only needing one more point to secure the win, all eyes were on Thayne's match.
"It was a tricky match; the guy [DePellegri] kind of played similar to how I play," said Thayne. "We were having a lot of volley exchanges which made it tricky, but I was just able to hold my serve in the big moments and get the breaks when I needed them."
Playing at his own pace and not rushing in response to DePellegri worked like a charm, as he quickly built a 5-1 lead in the first set, thanks to his strong net game. Along with returning a high percentage of volleys, he returned DePellegri's serves and capitalized on hitting spots in the open court whenever given the chance during rallies.
DePellegri tried to steal some momentum after his suddenly strong service game and a few unforced errors from Thayne made it 5-3. However, Thayne quickly recovered, breaking DePellegri’s serve once again to win the first set.
But that wouldn’t be the only time DePellegri challenged Thayne in this match. In fact, DePellegri was the first to successfully break serve in the second set, going up 3-2.
“In the second set, my energy dropped a little bit and he started to play a little better,” said Thayne. “I was able to just kind of refocus and think about what I wanted to do and was able to execute and then I won the next four games in a row to finish it out.”
Despite DePellegri's efforts in the second set, Thayne responded by breaking his serve and winning four consecutive points to secure the 6-3, 6-3 win.
With a 4-0 lead and only three matches remaining, Thayne's victory also proved to be what secured a win for the Cougars too.
Despite already knowing who won, BYU finished the day with a 6-1 record, with victories from TJ Wells and David Duong. BYU's Redd Owen nearly forced a third set after taking the second set to a tiebreaker, but ultimately fell short against Viktor Sklenka.
Heading into his match, Sklenka had only lost one match on the year in singles play against Boise State.
Despite his own loss, Owen can still celebrate the win thanks to the stellar play of his teammates and look forward to redemption in next week’s road matchups against Cal Poly and Idaho.
The next home game for the Cougars comes Feb. 28 when they host Denver.