BERKELEY -- The BYU men's tennis team rallied from behind to upset No. 29 Cal Berkeley at the Hellman Tennis Courts in a 4-3 victory.
The Cougars lost the doubles point but not without a fight. Winning at the No. 2 doubles spot was Chip Hand and Alonzo Medina as the duo defeated Tyler Browne and Jake Leivent of California 8-4. Cougar duos Erik Nyman/Nima Roshan and Ivan Kokurin/Ian Fillmore both fought hard in their matches before falling 8-4,8-3 at the Nos. 1 and 3 positions.
"We are on a huge high right now," head coach Brad Pearce said. "They all played so well. I kept telling the guys to just hang in there and today it really paid off."
At the No. 1 singles spot, Nyman tacked on his fourth straight win defeating California's top seed Balazs Veress of Hungary in three sets. Just yesterday Veress ousted the No. 2 player in the country, Benedikt Dorsch of Baylor, stretching his win streak to six. Nyman put an end to the streak posting a 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 win over the Hungarian.
Other wins for BYU came from Hand at the No. 3 position, Roshan at No. 5 and Medina at the No. 6 spot respectively. Clinching the match for the Cougars was Roshan's three-set win over John Pettit of Cal Berkeley 6-7, 7-6, 6-1.
Roshan was down three in match point of the second set tiebreaker, but dug deep to overpower Pettit and finish the match on top giving the Cougars their sweet victory in Berkeley
"What a great day," Pearce said. "Everyone hung in there and competed so well. As a coach, we've had some real challenges this season but wins like this one make it all worth it. I'm so proud of the way they all played."
The men's tennis team will be home for a week before beginning conference play on April 2nd against UNLV.
BYU 4, Cal 3Doubles:
Nyman/Roshan (BYU) def. Briaud/Veress (Cal) 8-4
Hand/Medina (BYU) def. Browne/Leivent (Cal) 8-4
Kokurin/Filmore (BYU) def. Minato/Pettit (Cal) 8-3
Cal Berkeley wins doubles point
Singles:
Erik Nyman (BYU) def Balazs Veress (Cal) 7-5, 3-6, 6-1
Tyler Browne (Cal) def. Richard Dasek (BYU) 6-2, 6-3
Chip Hand (BYU) def. Jake Leivent (Cal) 6-2, 7-5
Patrick Briaud (Cal) def. Ivan Kokurin (BYU) 6-2, 6-1
Nima Roshan (BYU) def. John Pettit (Cal) 6-7, 7-6, 6-1
Alonzo Medina (BYU) def. Andreas Petersen (Cal) 6-4, 6-7, 6-4
