BYU suffers road defeat at Loyola Marymount

LOS ANGELES – A California road trip started with a 4-0 loss for BYU men’s tennis Friday afternoon at Loyola Marymount. The Cougars had leads at No. 1 doubles and three of the six singles matches but did not get to see out any potential victories once LMU clinched the doubles point and dual match.

Jack Barnett and Wally Thayne led 5-3 and were set to serve for the win in their doubles match. Barnett, Zach Fuchs and Brigham Andrus all won the first set of their singles contests.

FULL RESULTS

Doubles

1. Jack Barnett/Wally Thayne (BYU) vs. Austin Di Giulio/John Bryan Otico (LMU) 5-3, unf.
2. Arthur Pantino/Emin Torlic (LMU) def. Brigham Andrus/Zach Fuchs (BYU) 6-4
3. Alvaro Gonzalez/Toky Ranaivo (LMU) def. Dominik Jakovljevic/Redd Owen (BYU) 6-1

Order of finish: 3, 2

Loyola Marymount got off to a strong start at No. 3 doubles, taking a 5-0 lead. Jakovljevic and Owen then held their serve to win the next game before LMU held serve as well to take the match 6-1.

An early break put LMU up 3-1 on court two. That advantage would hold until the Lions were up 5-4 with a chance to serve for the match. Andrus and Fuchs went up 40-0 in that game but Pantino and Torlic came back to win on deciding point. The result gave LMU a 6-4 match victory and clinched the doubles point.

No. 1 doubles then went unfinished with BYU leading 5-3. LMU had gone up 3-1 to start the match before Barnett and Thayne used two break points to win four-straight games. They had a chance to serve for the match when the stoppage came.

Singles

1. Jack Barnett (BYU) vs. Arthur Pantino (LMU) 7-6 (6), 3-4, unf.
2. Emin Torlic (LMU) def. Wally Thayne (BYU) 6-4, 6-2
3. Zach Fuchs (BYU) vs. John Bryan Ortico (LMU) 6-3, 2-6, 1-1, unf.
4. Austin Di Giulio (LMU) def. Dominik Jakovljevic (BYU) 6-2, 6-4
5. Toky Ranaivo (LMU) def. Redd Owen (BYU) 6-3, 6-2
6. Brigham Andrus (BYU) vs. Alvaro Gonzalez (LMU) 6-4, 6-5, unf.

Order of finish: 2, 5, 4

The Lions expanded their lead at No. 2 singles, where Thayne fell in straight sets. A 3-all tie in set one gave way to a 5-3 lead for Torlic that eventually became a 6-4 set victory. Torlic then started with a 4-0 lead in set two before going on to win 6-2.

No. 5 singles saw Owen lose two break points to trail 4-1 in set one. Ranaivo eventually took the set 6-3. In set two Owen was up 2-1 before Ranaivo won the final five games to earn a 6-2 victory.

LMU then clinched the dual match on court four, where Di Giulio started out with a 4-0 lead in set one. Jakovljevic recovered and won the next two games, but Di Giulio then did the same to win the set 6-2. Set two also saw Di Giulio take an early lead, 3-1, before Jakovljevic tied the set at 3-all. A 4-all tie later in the set was broken as Jakovljevic lost the final two games to drop the set 4-6.

The remaining three singles matches went unfinished, with the Cougars having won the first set in all three. Barnett and Pantino each won two break points early on in set one at No. 1 singles, with the set ultimately being decided by a tiebreaker after neither side could pull ahead. Barnett trailed 4-5 in the tiebreaker, but he landed two serves that Pantino could not return over the net to take a 6-5 lead. Pantino held on for a couple of more points before another unreturnable serve from Barnett gave the Cougar the 8-6 win.

Set two also saw Barnett lose an early break point, but he rallied for a 2-all tie. Pantino was up 4-3 in the set with Barnett set to serve when the match concluded.

Fuchs took set one at No. 3 singles 6-3 after a late break point broke a 3-3 tie. He started out with a lead in set two as well, 2-0, before Otico won six-straight games to send the match to a third set. The final set was knotted at 1-all before the match went unfinished.

No. 6 singles was the closest BYU came to a singles victory, as Andrus was one game away from winning his match. Gonzalez started with a 2-0 lead in set one before Andrus won six of the next eight games to take the set 6-4. Neither side lost their serves in set two, with Andrus up 6-5 and looking for a break point when the dual match ended.

The Cougars remain in Southern California for a match at No. 35 Pepperdine. The West Coast Conference contest gets underway at 1:00 p.m. PDT from the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center and will be streamed live.