BYU tennis falls 4-3 in close match against Santa Clara

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – BYU men’s tennis fell 4-3 in its final league match of the weekend to Santa Clara at the Degheri Tennis Center.

"Santa Clara is a tough team out on their courts-- they played well and fought hard at every position," BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. "Congratulations to them. The positive take away from today's loss is that we competed so hard. We felt capable of coming home 3-0 after this trifecta, and we had a match point for the win to do it and were right there. Those will start going our way as we learn from them and make adjustments. I'm proud of the way this team competes." 

BYU (16-6, 5-2 WCC) started the match strong by winning the doubles point over Santa Clara (10-8, 2-3 WCC). Ben Gajardo and David Ball defeated Connor Garnett and Kamran Khan 6-3 in No. 3 doubles. The Broncos answered with a win in No. 2 doubles with Vasileios Iliopoulos and Jesus Barajas defeating BYU brother duo John Pearce and Matthew Pearce 6-3.

With doubles split 1-1, a 6-2 win from Sean Hill and Jeffrey Hsu over Andrew Gu and Robert Seby in the No. 1 slot helped the Cougars secure the doubles point over the Broncos.

Up 1-0 moving into singles, BYU dropped the first two singles matches. J. Pearce fell to Garnett 6-4, 6-1 in No. 4 singles, while Hsu lost to Barajas 7-6, 6-1 in the No. 2 slot. Sam Tullis earned the Cougars their first singles win of the day after defeating Seby 6-2, 6-3 in No. 3 singles.

Tied 2-all, Santa Clara took the next win in No. 1 singles with Gu defeating Hill 6-1, 7-5, but BYU’s Gajardo won in the No. 5 slot 7-5, 6-4 over Iliopoulos, moving the tie to 3-all.

Santa Clara’s Sebastien Mathieu clinched the match with a three-set (4-6, 7-6, 6-4) win over Ball in No. 6 singles to lead the Broncos to a 4-3 win over the Cougars.

BYU concludes regular-season play hosting two league opponents next week. The Cougars play No. 49 Loyola Marymount Friday, April 13, at 1 p.m. MST, and Pepperdine on Saturday, April 14, at noon MST. Both matches will be played at the Outdoor Tennis Courts and live stats will be available on the men’s schedule page.

Match Results

BYU 3, Santa Clara 4

Doubles Results

1. HILL, Sean/HSU, Jeffrey (BYU) def. GU, Andrew/SEBY, Robert (SC) 6-2
2. ILIOPOULOS, Vasileios/BARAJAS, Jesus (SC) def. PEARCE, John/PEARCE, Matthew (BYU) 6-3
3. GAJARDO, Ben/BALL, David (BYU) def. GARNETT, Connor/KHAN, KAMRAN (SC) 6-3

Order of finish: (3, 2, 1)

Singles Results

1. GU, Andrew (SC) def. HILL, Sean (BYU) 6-1, 7-5
2. BARAJAS, Jesus (SC) def. HSU, Jeffrey (BYU) 7-6, 6-1
3. TULLIS, Sam (BYU) def. SEBY, Robert (SC) 6-2, 6-3
4. GARNETT, Connor (SC) def. PEARCE, John (BYU) 6-4, 6-1
5. GAJARDO, Ben (BYU) def. ILIOPOULOS, Vasileios (SC) 7-5, 6-4
6. MATHIEU, Sebastien (SC) def. BALL, David (BYU) 4-6, 7-6, 6-4

Order of finish: (4, 2, 3, 1, 5, 6)

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