UC Irvine Defeats Cougars at Home

PROVO -- After winning the doubles point, the BYU men's tennis team was defeated 4-3 by UC Irvine on Tuesday. With the loss, the Cougars fall to 12-7 and record their first home loss of the season.

"I'm extremely disappointed," said BYU head coach Brad Pearce. "We had a tough, ranked opponent at home today. We've got to have guys rise to the occasion for big matches like these."

Daniel Hwang and Thomas Shubert recorded BYU's first win of the day at No. 2 doubles. Their 9-7 win was soon followed by a 9-8 tiebreaking win by Jonathan Sanchez and A.J. Young on court three. Cassidy Mears and Evan Urbina also forced their match into a tiebreaker, but ended up falling to Victor Lamm and Ajay Ahluwalia.

In singles play, Urbina dropped a 6-3, 6-1 match to Trevor Dobson at the No. 4 position, while Young posted a 6-3, 6-1 win over Ryan Mayer. On court two, Shubert fell to No. 106 Lamm, 6-4, 6-2.

UC Irvine took a 3-2 lead after Alex Sundling defeated Sanchez at the top spot. Mears battled in a tough three-set match, but lost 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 to Khunpol Issara, clinching the match for the Anteaters. With the result of the match already decided, Hwang notched another point for BYU with his 7-5, 6-4 win over Stephen Stege.

"A.J. [Young] did a great job today, winning in both singles and doubles, and Hwang battled to win a tough match," said Pearce. "Today we got the doubles point, just didn't have great performances in all the singles matches."

The Cougars will commence Mountain West Conference play on Thursday when they go to Las Vegas to take on the Rebels of UNLV.

RESULTS
No. 60 UC Irvine def. BYU, 3-4
March 25, 2008 - Provo, Utah
Doubles
1.  Sanchez/Young (BYU) def. Issara/Stege (UCI) 9-8(5)
2.  Hwang/Shubert (BYU) def. Dobson/Taylor (UCI) 9-7
3.  Lamm/Ahluwalia (BYU) def. Mears/Urbina (BYU) 9-8(4)
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3
Singles
1.  A. Sundling (UCI) def. J. Sanchez (BYU) 7-5, 6-3
2.  No. 106 V. Lamm (UCI) def. T. Shubert (BYU) 6-4, 6-2
3.  K. Issara (UCI) def. C. Mears (BYU) 6-3, 1-6, 6-2
4.  T. Dobson (UCI) def. E. Urbina (BYU) 6-3, 6-1
5.  D. Hwang (BYU) def. S. Stege (UCI) 7-5, 6-4
6.  A. Young (BYU) def. R. Mayer (UCI) 6-3, 6-1
Order of finish: 4, 6, 2, 1, 3, 5