PROVO -- The No. 73 BYU men's tennis team lost its third match in a row Friday to No. 4 UCLA, 7-0. Despite the loss, the team still feels good about the way it played. The Cougars finish their three-game road trip Saturday at UC Santa Barbara.

"I was disappointed about yesterday's loss to Irvine," BYU head coach and UCLA alum Brad Pearce. "It was a winnable match for us. The players just didn't get it done when they needed to. Today we played better tennis, but it was against a far superior team than yesterday."

The Cougars had a strong showing in the doubles competition despite losing all three matches. Dominik Kaufhold and James Ludlow lost 8-5 at the No. 1 spot to Philipp Gruendler and No. 5 Benjamin Kohlloeffel. BYU's Chip Hand and Jonathan Sanchez lost 8-6 to Haythem Abid and Michael Look while Cassidy Mears and Michael Eraso, playing in his first match of the season, lost 8-4 to No. 18 Mathieu Dehaine and Jeremy Drean.

Despite the loss, Pearce was still positive about his team's performance against one of the top teams in the nation.

"Kohlloeffel won the NCAA championship last year," Pearce said. "He is one of the best players in college tennis and Ludlow played a pretty good match against him. I was happy to see that."

Cale Planck did not play because of soreness in his elbow and Pearce was not sure if Planck would be ready to play in Saturday's match. With only one match left in the three-match trip, Pearce and his team are anxious to come home with at least one win under their belts.

"The bottom line is that the California schools are tough," Pearce said. "The scouting report I got on Santa Barbara says they're much improved. I think we're going to be in for a battle tomorrow. We have to play as good if not better than we did today to have a shot."

BYU will be back at home on Friday when they host Northern Arizona University and the University of San Francisco in a doubleheader. The first match will begin at 11 a.m. at the BYU Indoor Tennis Courts with the second match following at 5 p.m. BYU "Y" lot parking is available to visitors after 4 p.m. and admission to all BYU tennis matches is free.

Match Results

Men's Tennis

BYU at UCLA

1/26/07

Doubles

1. Gruendler/Kohlloeffel (UCLA) def. Kaufhold/Ludlow (BYU) 8-5

2. Abid/Look (UCLA) def. Hand/Sanchez (BYU) 8-6

3. (18) Mathieu Dehaine /Drean (UCLA) def. Eraso/Mears (BYU) 8-4

Singles

1. (5) Benjamin Kohlloeffel (UCLA) def. James Ludlow (BYU) 6-1, 6-4

2. Haythem Abid (UCLA) def. Dominik Kaufhold (BYU) 6-0, 6-3

3. (27) Chris Surapol (UCLA) def. Christian Hand (BYU) 6-1, 6-2

4. Philipp Gruendler (UCLA) def. Jonathan Sanchez (BYU) 6-3, 6-4

5. Jeremy Drean (UCLA) def. Cassidy Mears (BYU) 6-0, 6-1

6. Michael Look (UCLA) def. Michael Eraso (BYU) 6-1, 6-3

Order of Finish: 5, 3, 6, 2, 1, 4 --- Final Score: UCLA 7, BYU 0

PROVO -- Junior Anastasia Surkova was named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week Wednesday. The next time she will be in action is at home on Friday against Washington State while the men start a southern-California swing against UC Irvine on Thursday.

Wednesday marked the first of the Player-of-the-Week awards for the 2007 season. Surkova earned the award with wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 singles position last weekend, beating Denver's Annette Aksdal, 6-1, 6-2, and Washington's Tara Simpson, 6-3, 0-6, 6-1. Surkova also went 2-0 in doubles action, teaming up with Jenny Miccoli and Kristina Doerr at the No. 1 position to post wins over Denver, 8-4, and Washington, 8-3.

Friday's match against Washington State may feature a rematch of the championship match from the BYU Invitation that took place in September. That match featured BYU's Lauren Jones losing a close, three-set tiebreaker to then No. 47 Eka Burduli of Washington State. The match will begin at noon and admission is free.

"This match will probably be a tougher match than we faced in either of the two we played last weekend," head coach Craig Manning said. "We're excited."

Thursday marks the first of three matches in as many days for the men's team. The first challenge the Cougars will face will be UC Irvine, followed by perennial powerhouse and alma mater of head coach Brad Pearce, UCLA, on Friday and UC Santa Barbara on Saturday.

"We were disappointed last weekend at the Regional Playoff, but we can't cry over spilled milk," Pearce said. "This is going to be a tough weekend, but we just have to come out hard from the beginning."