Cougars handed first home loss by in-state rival Aggies

BYU vs. Utah State box score

PROVO, Utah—Despite singles efforts from Keaton Cullimore and John Pearce, BYU dropped its first home match of the season to Utah State, 4-3, Saturday afternoon.

BYU (14-4, 3-0 West Coast Conference) dropped the doubles point to Utah State (14-5, 1-0 Mountain West Conference). The Aggie team of Romal Ugarte and Luis Lopez defeated BYU’s No. 1 doubles team of Pearce and Jacob Sullivan, 6-3, for the first doubles point. They were quickly followed by teammates Jack Swindells and Jonas Maier, who beat the Cougars’ Cullimore and Jeremy Bourgeois 6-4 to go up 1-0 in the match. Andrey Goryachkov and Aidan Carrazedo’s match against the Aggies’ Andrew Nakajima and Jamie Barajas was suspended at 6-5 in favor of Utah State.

The Cougars took the first two points on the singles side. Pearce defeated Utah State’s Samuel Serrano, 6-3, 6-4, and Cullimore defeated Maier 6-4, 6-4. Swindells tied the match back up for the Aggies at 2-2, defeating Sullivan in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).

In the No. 1 singles spot, Shane Monroe lost a hard-fought battle against Barajas, losing 1-6, 6-4, 4-6 to give the Aggies a 3-2 advantage. Goryachkov evened the match up at 3-3, defeating Lopez 6-4, 5-7, 6-3. Carrazedo rallied from behind to take his match to three sets, but eventually lost to Ugarte, 6-7(0-7), 6-2, 3-6, to tip the match in Utah State's favor, 4-3.

BYU heads to California next week for a WCC matchup against No. 31 San Diego. The match will be played in San Diego at 1:00 p.m. PDT. Click here for live stat updates during the match.