BYU Men's Tennis Gets First Home Match of the Season

PROVO -- With several long road trips of experience already under its belt, the No. 62 BYU men's tennis team finally gets a home match Friday night. The Cougars (2-5) will host Utah State Friday at 6 p.m., and Portland on Saturday at 6 p.m. as well.

The Cougars most recent road trip was to California, where the Cougars lost to Fresno State and Southern Cal, but beat UC Irvine in the last match of the trip. BYU gained confidence on the trip and head coach Jim Osborne is excited to finally play in front of the hometown fans.

"We only have three home matches so we need to make sure we take care of business," Osborne said.

Carlos Lozano and Gert Vilms continue to play well in doubles play. The tandem is currently ranked No. 17 in the nation, and Lozano has moved up to No. 138 in singles. But Osborne thinks the doubles teams can do even better than they already are.

"We thought our doubles would be better than it has so far," Osborne said. "Our goal is to sweep the doubles this weekend to get us back on track."

Utah State should look very familiar, as BYU faced the Aggies in the BYU Invitational in October. Andreas Madersbacher leads the Aggies and plays at the No. 1 position, but Utah State always pumps itself up before the BYU match.

"Utah State has very good fighers," Osborne said. "We can't take them lightly. This match is really important for them."

Like Utah State, Portland is not ranked. But Portland has a couple players, Peter Malacek and Travis Parrott, that should give BYU strong competition in Saturday's match.

"Their top two players are as good as we'll see all season," Osborne said.

BYU will also be at home next week facing Denver. The match will be next Friday and then the Cougars will be on the road for the rest of the season.