PROVO, Utah – Senior Francis Sargeant continued to climb BYU’s all-time singles victories list, but the Cougars fell 4-2 in a tight contest to rival Utah Friday night in Provo in the Deseret First Duel.

After splitting the first two doubles matches, BYU (7-8, 1-0) forced a tiebreak in the third matchup, but Shane Monroe and Jeremy Bourgeois fell 7-6 (7-2) as Utah (8-5) grabbed the 1-0 lead. Jacob Sullivan and David Ball won at No. 2 doubles over Santiago Sierra and Johan Jonhagen 6-4. Sargeant and Andrey Goryachkov lost at No. 1 doubles to Cedric Willems and Matt Cowley 6-4.

Sargeant earned the Cougars’ first point with a dominating 6-0, 6-2 win over Willems at No. 1 singles. The victory was Sargeant’s 87th of his career, moving him into a tie for No. 6 on BYU’s all-time list.

The Utes jumped back into the lead when Parker McGuiness beat Goryachkov 7-5, 6-2, but Monroe evened the score quickly with a straight-set victory at No. 3 singles, beating Cowley 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) to tie the match at two.

Utah won the next two matchups to clinch the 4-2 victory in Provo. Bourgeois fell in three sets to Freddie McGeehan 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-2, and Aidan Carrazedo lost to Jonhagen at No. 5 singles 6-0, 4-6, 6-4.

The Cougars are back on the courts Saturday for a conference match with Santa Clara at the BYU indoor tennis courts in Provo at 5:30 p.m. MST. Live video and stats are available through the BYU men’s tennis schedule page.

PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s tennis returns home for a matchup with rival University of Utah Friday and a conference match against Santa Clara on Saturday in Provo.

The Cougars (7-7, 1-0) will look to snap a five-match losing streak when they host the Utes Friday. Senior captain Francis Sargeant leads BYU against its rival as he looks to continue to climb the BYU all-time singles victories list. He currently sits at seventh all time with 86, one win away from sixth place.

Utah (7-5) heads down to Provo hoping to snap a losing streak of their own having lost their last to matches to No. 44 Penn and No. 72 Boise State. The Utes had a 3-1 lead in the match against Penn but the Quakers rallied for the 4-3 victory.

Santa Clara (4-4, 0-0) will provide a good test for the Cougars in Provo. The Broncos are projected two finish third in the West Coast Conference, two spots ahead of BYU’s projected finish. Santa Clara is led by Ashot Khacharyan at No. 1 singles. Khacharyan boasts a 12-3 singles record and has won five of his last six matches.

The match against Utah on Friday and Santa Clara on Saturday will both begin at 5:30 p.m. MST. Live video and stats are available on the BYU men’t tennis schedule page.