Anonymous | Posted: 9 Oct 2002 | Updated: 9 Oct 2002

Lozano and Nyman Participate in All-American Championships

CHATTANOOGA -- Erik Nyman and Carlos Lozano of the BYU men's tennis team both lost in the singles qualifying portion of the 2002 Icy Hot/ITA Men's All-American Championships held in Chattanooga, Tenn. this week.

Lozano lost in the first round in a tough match to Dustin Taylor of the University of Tulsa 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Nyman advanced past the first round, beating Nathan McGregor of the University of Texas-Arlington 6-0, 6-2, but was unable to get past the second round. He lost to Alex Menichini of TCU 1-6, 6-3, 6-0.

BYU's head coach Jim Osborne said that the matches were all close.

"Carlos (Lozano) and Eric (Nyman) played well but were just unable to turn it up a notch," Osborne said. "Lozano won the first set but he just let the guy back in the game. Taylor from Tulsa came out in the second set and just didn't make many mistakes. It was a close match."

As for Nyman, Osborne was pleased with his play in the first round.

"In the first round, Nyman did not let the guy into the match," he said. "In the next round, Eric won the first set easily and was up a break in the second. But he played one sloppy game and then there was a rain delay. When play resumed, Menichini from TCU came out a different player and won the match."

Although Osborne wishes Lozano and Nyman could have advanced to the main singles draw of the All-American Championships, he said he realizes that they are playing good competition and it is still early in the season.

Both Lozano and Nyman still have the main doubles draw to participate in. They received an eighth seed in the prestigious tournament and will open play Thursday against Phil Stolt and Brian Wilson of the University of Illinois.

The Icy Hot/ITA Men's All-American Championships include 256-singles player and 128-doubles team prequalifying tournaments played Oct. 4-7, which feed into 64-player and 32-doubles team qualifying tournaments Oct. 8-9. The 64-player, 32-doubles team main draw takes place Oct. 10-14. The singles tournament fields can run over 300 players, making it the largest collegiate event of the season.

The All-American Championships is not only the largest single tournament of this season in collegiate tennis, but also the first of three national championship events at the Division I level during the 2002-03 collegiate tennis season.