Men's tennis to host BYU Invitational

PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s tennis opens their fall season this week as they host the BYU Invitational at the BYU Outdoor Courts in Provo. The invitational is open so it will feature players from BYU, Utah and former Cougar alumni.

 

Draws available here

 

The first round of singles matches begins Thursday Sept. 11 at 1:30 pm and will be followed by second round matches at 3:30 pm. Cougars Jacob Sullivan, Juan Canales and Victor Brown all begin play in the first round while Jeremy Bourgeois, Robin Pfister, Aidan Carrazedo, David Ball, Shane Monroe and Andrey Goryachkov all move to the second round with first round byes. Cougar alum, and No. 1 seed, Patrick Kawka also moves into the second round. Third round competition will start Friday, Sept. 12 at 1:00 pm.

 

Doubles play begins at 5:00 pm. Winners of first round matches will move on to play in the second round on Friday, also at 5:00 pm. Coach Brad Pearce will be stepping in for senior Francis Sargeant, playing with Goryachkov, and the team will open up play Friday after a first round bye. The Cougar team of Carrazedo and Sullivan also earned a first round bye. Thursday's first round will feature three BYU teams (Ball/Monroe, Bourgeois/Canales and Brown/Pfister). All three play at 5:00 pm on Thursday. 

 

While not playing in the BYU Invite, Sargeant leads the Cougars into the 2014-15 campaign as the team’s returning No.1 singles player. Last season, Sargeant finished as the sixth ranked player in the ITA Mountain Region after a 17-6 singles record in dual matches and 28-11 overall. He was named to the All-WCC Second Team in singles and broke into the Cougars’ top 10 in career singles winning percentage (.683) and career singles victories with 80. BYU also returns its No. 2 singles player Goryachkov who finished with an impressive 20-15 overall record in singles while earning All-WCC Honorable Mention honors. 

 

Last season was a rebuilding year for the Cougars, as Sargeant was the only upperclassman on the roster that included eight freshmen. Those freshmen return for this season with a full year of experience under their belt. Juan Canales led all newcomers with a 12-8 singles record before suffering an injury halfway through the season that ended his year. 

 

Sophomores Sullivan, Bourgeois, Pfister and Carrazedo all return after playing significant time for the Cougars as freshmen. They will be joined by the No. 1 recruiting class among mid-major conferences. The class is comprised of Monroe, Brown and Ball. 

 

After the BYU Invitational, the Cougars will play at the Utah Invitational October 9-11.