PROVO -- In an intense double header, the BYU men's tennis team blanked the Aggies in seven straight before falling to the University of Denver 5-2.

The Cougars got off to an early start as all three doubles teams won their matches, scoring the first team point for BYU against the Aggies. Cougar duo Erik Nyman and Nima Roshan pulled off a big win over Hungsoon Park and Hannes Schenk 8-4.

"I felt like our guys did a great job against Utah State," head coach Brad Pearce said. "We had some good wins and it was nice to come out on top. We really played well."

In an impressive win over Utah State's Roshan Rasekhi, freshman Chip Hand posted a 7-6, 6-0 win to give the Cougars their second point.

In singles against Utah State, Nyman "Swede" avenged his loss against Park with an exciting two-set match. In their last meeting, (Region 7 Championship) Nyman lost to Park. Park had big serves and three let serves to make the match more difficult, but Nyman had strong returns and several aces to finish the match in two sets 6-3, 6-2.

Finishing off their in-state rival, the Cougar men had big wins from newcomers Dominik Kaufhold and Ivan Kokurin. Roshan and Tim Bradshaw also had impressive wins to help seal the shut out.

BYU struggled against the Pioneers in a much more difficult event. There were crowd-pleasing shots and intense match-ups as the Cougars fought hard to stay in their games.

"I was disappointed with some of the effort in our doubles matches," Pearce said. "We talked in between the doubles and singles matches and they each (BYU) went out and gave a solid effort. I am really proud of how they competed. Nobody gave up."

Denver won two of its three doubles matches to score the first point for the Pioneers. BYU's Alonzo Medina and Chip Hand defeated Jason Tan and Urban Ljubic for the Cougar's only doubles win.

The Pioneers scored their second point when Victor Zetterholm defeated Richard Dasek in singles 6-1, 6-3.

In hard fought singles matches, Nyman, Hand and Dasek all lost their first set but battled back to stay in it. After being down three games, Hand dug in to even his second set at one game a piece against Hans Peter Gaber of Denver. Nyman, Hand and Roshan all pushed their matches to tiebreakers.

In perhaps the most difficult and longest match of the evening, top seeded Nyman fell to Denver's Nejc Smole in the tiebreaker 6-7, 6-4, 6-7. Smole's win gave the Pioneers their fourth point for the win.

BYU vs. USU
Singles:
Erik Nyman (BYU) def. Hungsoon Park (USU)		 6-3, 6-2
Chip Hand (BYU) def. Roshan Rusekhi (USU)		 7-6, 6-0
Nima Roshan (BYU) def. Hannes Schenk (USU) 	  	 6-1, 7-6
Ivan Kokurin (BYU) def. Jonah Nelson (USU)		 6-2, 6-0
Tim Bradshaw (BYU) vs. Jason Trask (USU) 		 3-6, 7-6 (10-3)
Dominik Kaufhold (BYU) vs. Ryan Bair (USU)		 6-1, 6-4
Doubles: 
Nyman/Roshan (BYU) def. Park/Schenk(USU)	     	8-4
Dasek/Kokurin (BYU) def. Nelson/Rusekhi (USU) 	8-3
Bradshaw/Kaufhold (BYU) def. Bair/Trask (USU)		8-4
BYU vs. Denver
Singles:
Nejc Smole (UD) def. Erik Nyman (BYU) 		 6-7, 6-4, 6-7
Hans Peter Gaber (UD) def. Chip Hand (BYU)		 5-7, 6-2, 6-7
Viktor Zetterholm (UD) def. Richard Dasek (BYU) 	 1-6, 3-6
Nima Roshan (BYU) def. Urban Ljubic (UD) 		 7-6, 2-6, 6-7
Jason Tan (UN) def. Ivan Kokurin (BYU)	          6-2, 0-6, 6-4
Alonzo Medina (BYU) vs. Niki Popovic (UD) 
Doubles:
Smole/Zetterholm (UD) def. Nyman/Roshan (BYU) 	 8-6
Popovic/Gaber (UD) def. Dasek/Kokurin (BYU) 		 8-6
Hand/Medina (BYU) def. Tan/Ljubic (DU) 		 8-5

PROVO -- The BYU men's tennis team hopes to continue it's winning ways as it hosts the Aggies of Utah State and the Pioneers of Denver in a double header Friday in the Indoor Tennis Facility.

The Cougars will first host Utah State at 2 p.m. followed by the match against Denver scheduled for 6 p.m.

In their last meeting, the Cougars posted two big wins against the two opponents. BYU defeated the Aggies 6-1 and pushed the Pioneers to a 4-3 win to improve its 2003 campaign to a 6-3 record.

"Both Utah State and Denver will be a good match up for us," head coach Brad Pearce said. "Both teams have a lot of strength in their line up. This week will show us how good we are."

Coach Pearce recently added three new recruits to the Cougar line up. Ian Fillmore from Tulsa, Oklahoma; Dominik Kaufhold from Ratingen, Germany and Ivan Kokurin from Tushkent, Uzbekistan all signed with BYU in December and will be competing this season.

"We have a good team and we've bettered ourselves with the three new additions," Pearce said. "We will just play tough and try to get better. We might even see some action from the new recruits this week."

Pearce will look for strength from senior Erik Nyman (No. 80) who posted a key win over Lucas Bouton of Utah State to highlight the BYU Invitational in September.

The Cougars not only bring strength to the singles circuit, they should be tough in the doubles slot as well. Teammates Jose Lechuga and Nima Roshan had an impressive preseason and are currently ranked 22 in doubles in the ITA. However, Lechuga will not play this week, he recently suffered a broken ankle during practice. It is not determined how long Leghuga will be out.

The injury to Lechuga has caused coach Pearce to make some changes in the doubles teams.

"That injury really hurts us," Pearce said. "We've had to jockey our doubles combos over the last couple of days to find the right combination. It's important to have just the right chemistry to be successful."

Coach Pearce is expected to announce the doubles teams the day of the match.