Cougars fall to No. 39 Stanford in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO – Sophomore Jacob Sullivan earned the lone point for BYU men’s tennis Friday night as they fell to No. 39 Stanford 6-1 at Bay Club San Francisco Tennis.

“Our preparation was great, our mentality going into the match was great and our team spirit was great. We just got beat by a better team tonight,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “Kudos to Jacob Sullivan on his match win. He became a better player by finishing strong.”

The match was originally scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. but due to inclement weather was moved indoors to Bay Club Tennis Friday night at 10 p.m. PST.

Once the match got going, the Cardinal jumped out to a quick lead after capturing the doubles point. Jeremy Bourgeois and Robin Pfister fell first to Maciek Romanowicz and Tom Fawcett 6-1. Stanford clinched the point when Yale Goldberg and David Wilczynski beat David Ball and Jacob Sullivan 6-2. Francis Sargeant and Andrey Goryachkov were also on the court but their matchup was called when the doubles point was won.

In singles play, Sullivan was the only Cougar to come away with a win. Playing at No. 5 singles, he outplayed Stanford’s Goldberg 4-6, 7-6, 1-0 (10-6). Sargeant was back at No. 1 singles but faced off against Fawcett, who is ranked No. 25 nationally, and came up short, losing 6-1, 6-1. Freshman Shane Monroe lost at No. 2 singles to John Morissey 6-3, 6-4.

Goryachkov and Juan Canales, playing at No. 3 and 6 respectively, both also lost in straight sets to Wilcynzki (6-0, 6-1) and Robert Stineman (6-2, 6-1). Ball, who grew up in Palo Alto, was the only other Cougar to come close to grabbing a point, however he fell in a third set tiebreaker 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-5) to Nolan Paige.

“We need to learn from this experience and what they did well from top to bottom to work harder to get better ourselves,” Pearce said. “This match will help us get better. I am proud of my team tonight and have no doubt the commitment is there to improve.”

BYU returns home to face Denver and Iowa next weekend. The Cougars will host Denver on Friday night at 5:30 p.m. MST and Iowa will visit BYU Saturday at 1 p.m. MST. Live stats and streaming video is available through the BYU schedule page.

No. 39 Stanford 6, BYU 1

DOUBLES
1) Morrissey/Stineman (STAN) vs. Goryachkov/Sargeant (BYU) abandoned
2) Fawcett/Maciek Romanowicz (STAN) d. Jeremy Bourgeois/Robin Pfister (BYU) 6-1
3) Goldberg/Wilczynski (STAN) d. Ball/Sullivan (BYU) 6-2
Order of Finish: 2, 3

SINGLES
1) No. 25 Tom Fawcett (STAN) d. Francis Sargeant (BYU) 6-1, 6-1
2 John Morrissey (STAN) d. Shane Monroe (BYU) 6-3, 6-4
3 David Wilczynski (STAN) d. Andrey Goryachkov (BYU) 6-0, 6-1
4) Nolan Paige (STAN) d. David Ball (BYU) 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (5)
5) Jacob Sullivan (BYU) d. Yale Goldberg (STAN) 4-6, 7-6 (6), 1-0 (6)
6 Robert Stineman (STAN) d. Juan Canales (BYU) 6-2, 6-1
Order of Finish: 3, 6, 1, 2, 4, 5