Cougars Rise and Fall in Double Header

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