MALIBU, Calif. – BYU men’s tennis came out strong at No. 49 Pepperdine but could not sustain the momentum and lost 4-1 Saturday in a West Coast Conference matchup in Malibu.

The Cougars (9-13, 3-2) got on the board first with two victories in doubles to give them the 1-0 lead in the match. Aidan Carrazedo and David Ball were first off the court for BYU, beating Lautaro Pane and Luca Marquard 6-4. Francis Sargeant and Shane Monroe clinched the point for the Cougars with a 7-5 win over Pedro Iamachkine and Tom Hill.

The Waves (11-7, 3-1) flipped the momentum in singles and took four consecutive matchups to clinch the match. Shane Monroe was the first Cougar to fall at No. 3 singles, losing 6-2, 6-2 to Rakshay Thakkar. Iamachkine then beat Jacob Sullivan 6-0, 6-4 at No. 4 singles and Stefan Menichella outplayed Andrey Goryachkov at No. 2 singles, winning 0-6, 6-0, 6-3.

With Pepperdine up 3-1, Marquard clinched the match for the Waves at No. 6 singles by beating Carrazedo 6-2, 7-5.

BYU returns home next week to host WCC foe Pacific on Friday at noon. Live stats will be available through the men’s schedule page.

PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s tennis hits the road this week to put their undefeated West Coast Conference record on the line with matches at Loyola Marymount and No. 49 Pepperdine.

The Cougars (9-11, 3-0) were in southern California last weekend for the BNP Paribas Open, one of the most competitive tournaments in college tennis. BYU lost in matches against No. 2 Baylor and No. 27 Tulsa but came away with some big wins. Francis Sargeant beat No. 33 ranked singles Or Ram-Harel in straight sets against Tulsa and combined with teammate Shane Monroe to beat the No. 53 ranked doubles duo in the nation.

The Lions (8-8, 0-4) hope a home match against the Cougars will provide their first conference win of the season. However, three of their four conference losses have come against the two ranked teams in the conference (No. 30 San Diego and Pepperdine) and Portland who is also undefeated in conference. LMU beat No. 72 Utah two weeks ago in Los Angeles.

The Waves (10-7, 2-1) currently sit at fourth in the WCC behind BYU, San Diego and Portland. Last season, Pepperdine visited Provo and delivered a heartbreaking loss to the Cougars in a tiebreaker in the final matchup of the match.

The match Friday against LMU will begin at 2 p.m. PDT and Saturday’s Pepperdine match in Malibu will begin at 1 p.m. PDT.