Cougars fall at home to No. 64 Denver

PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s tennis (7-4, 1-0) dropped their home match to No. 64 Denver (4-4) Friday night in Provo 4-1.

“We didn't capitalize on the opportunities we had to secure the doubles point and we didn't sustain enough momentum to get on the scoreboard in singles until it was too late,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “We are looking forward to bouncing back against Iowa tomorrow.”

The Pioneers got on the board first after capturing the doubles point. Jacob Sullivan and David Ball fell to Henry Craig and Jesse Ruder-Hook 6-3 to begin the match. Shortly after, Denver’s David Fox and Alex Gasson clinched the point by beating Francis Sargeant and Andrey Goryachkov 6-3. Robin Pfister and Jeremy Bourgeois were down 4-3 when their match was called.

The Cougars looked poised to bounce back in singles when Sargeant took his first set quickly 6-1 over No. 113 ranked Craig, but Craig battled back to take the matchup in three sets 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Freshmen Ball and Shane Monroe both fell in straight sets to Yannik James (6-4, 6-2) and Diogo Rocha (7-5, 7-5) as the Pioneers clinched the match.

Goryachkov earned the Cougars lone point by coming back in three sets against Gasson to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Sullivan was up a set (6-3) on Zach Fryer when it was called, while Bourgeois was down against Fox 7-5, 4-3.

BYU is back on the court Saturday at 1:00 p.m. MST. Live video and stats are available on the men’s tennis schedule page.