LOS -- No. 34 BYU men’s tennis dropped a hard-fought match to No. 28 Fresno State 4-2 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Cougars finish the season 21-7 overall, tied for second-most victories in program history.

“Our guys came out and put their heart and soul into the match,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “It was a close match. There were a couple of opportunities that we didn’t capitalize on but I was proud of the way the guys competed and the way they handled themselves.”

After the Cougars narrowly lost the doubles point 2-1 and dropped the fourth singles point, sophomore Georgy Batrakov put BYU on the scoreboard with a 6-2, 6-3 straight-sets victory over Tejesvi Veerepalli at the number three singles spot. Junior Daniel Hwang evened the overall match score at two-apiece with a 6-1, 6-2 victory in sixth singles.

Fresno State rallied for the win by claiming close matches in first and second singles. In number two singles junior Evan Urbina lost set one to Rikus de Villiers 6-3 and nearly rallied to take set two before falling 7-5. Junior Thomas Shubert battled Mirko Zapletal of the Bulldogs in the number one spot and fell 7-5, 6-3 to end the match.

Fresno State’s first team claimed the first doubles point with an 8-4 win over Shubert and Cassidy Mears. Urbina and Spencer Smith came back to tie the score at 1-all, outlasting Siddharth Alapati and Tejesvi Veerepalli 9-8 (11-9) to win in third doubles. The number two doubles match also went down to the wire, as Batrakov and Hwang were outdueled 9-8 (7-2) by Fresno State’s Taylor Leiby and Zapletal.

The Cougars enjoyed one of their best seasons in program history, finishing with a 6-0 record to win the Mountain West Conference regular season title. BYU made its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2001 and Pearce earned MWC and ITA Mountain Region Coach of the Year honors. The Cougars also garnered nine MWC player of the week honors during the season.

“I hope we can take this experience and build on it for next year,” Pearce said. “We’ve had a historic season in many ways. We had a great record and achieved a lot. Our goal is to build on that for the future.”

Results
No. 28 Fresno State-4
No. 34 BYU-2
DOUBLES
(1) Remi Boutillier-Rikus de Villiers (FSU) def. Cassidy Mears-Thomas Shubert (BYU), 8-4
(2) Taylor Leiby-Mirko Zapletal (FSU) def. George Batrakov-Daniel Hwang (BYU), 9-8 (7-2)
(3) Spencer Smith-Evan Urbina (BYU) def. Siddharth Alapati-Tejesvi Veerepalli (FSU)  9-8 (11-9)
Order of Finish: 1,3,2
SINGLES
(1) Mirko Zapletal (FSU) def. Thomas Shubert (BYU), 7-5, 6-3
(2) Rikus de Villiers (FSU) def. Evan Urbina (BYU), 6-3, 7-5
(3) George Batrakov (BYU) def. Tejesvi Veerepalli (FSU) 6-2, 6-3
(4) Remi Boutillier (FSU) def. Cassidy Mears (BYU), 6-2, 6-2
(5) David Ayoun (FSU) vs. Spencer Smith (BYU),  6-3, 5-4, susp.
(6) Daniel Hwang (BYU) def. Siddharth Alapati (FSU), 6-1, 6-2
Order of Finish: 4,3,6,2,1

PROVO, Utah (May 11, 2010) With a 21-6 record, the No. 34 BYU men’s tennis team begins play in the 2010 NCAA Tennis Championships, this Friday.

The Cougars are in the bracket hosted by 2009 defending champions USC. In first round action BYU will battle No. 28 Fresno State (18-9) on Friday, May 14 at 10 a.m. PT.

In the other first round match it’s No. 5 and host USC (19-3) who battles Marist (14-5). That match begins at 1 p.m. On Saturday, May 15 the winners of each match advance to the second round set to begin at 1 p.m.

The winner from each site goes on to compete in the Championships at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Georgia, beginning May 21.

COUGARS IN THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

This will be the first time that BYU has competed in the team portion of the NCAA tournament since 2001. In that appearance the team lost to Cal in first round action 4-1. The Golden Bears went on to finish in the Round of 16.

The Cougars are one of two teams from the Mountain West Conference participating in this year’s national tournament. TCU received the league’s automatic bid while BYU received an at-large invitation.

Singles and doubles players have competed in the individual portion of the tournament as recent as 2004 when Eric Nyman lost in first round action in singles to Alex Slovic from the University of Washington. Nyman and Nima Roshan competed in doubles but also fell in the first round to a duo from Arizona.

ABOUT FIRST/SECOND ROUND OPPONENTS

BYU and Fresno State will be meeting for the 11th time in the series history between the two schools. The Bulldogs lead the series 8-2. Their last meeting was in Fresno on February 12, 2004 where FSU beat BYU 6-1.

BYU and Marist have never played each other.

The Trojans and Cougars have met 22 times over the years with USC capturing all of the victories in the series. The last time the two schools met dates back to the 2003 campaign. In that matchup the Trojans won 7-0 in Los Angeles.