BYU opens Rice Fall Challenge with undefeated day in doubles

HOUSTON - BYU men’s tennis went a perfect 4-0 in doubles during day one of the Rice Fall Challenge. The Cougars earned wins over teams from SMU and UTSA after playing six singles matches against Rice earlier in the afternoon.

Wally Thayne and Zach Fuchs are now 5-3 together all-time, upping their winning percentage to .625 with today’s result. Brigham Andrus’ return to competition saw him earn a victory with Mateo Vereau, with Vereau and Fuchs also picking up singles victories on the day. Dominik Jakovljevic and Alex Lin joined Thayne and Fuchs in securing victories over SMU, which finished last season as the No. 22 school in the nation.

Thursday’s Results

Doubles

• Thayne/Fuchs def. Krall/Stafford (SMU) 8-5
• Vereau/Andrus def. Pinho/Skelly (UTSA) 8-7
• Jakovljevic/Lin def. Hovenier/Sillman (SMU) 8-7
• Owen/Chen def. Alonso/Muminovic (UTSA) 8-4

Singles

• Mateo Vereau def. Emir Sendogan (Rice) 7-6, 7-6
• Zach Fuchs def. Wes Barnett (Rice) 6-1, 6-3
• Yasha Zemel (Rice) def. Wally Thayne 6-4, 6-4
• Trinity Grear (Rice) def. Dominik Jakovljevic 6-1, 3-6, 6-1
• Kabeer Kapasi (Rice) def. Redd Owen 6-3, 6-1
• Eduardo Morais (Rice) def. Alex Lin 6-2, 6-4

The Cougars return to action Friday Oct. 28, at 10:00 a.m. CDT. The team will have singles matches against Texas A&M Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) and UTSA. They will also have doubles matches against Rice and TAMUCC if the weather permits.