Cougars Drop Close One To New Mexico

PROVO -- After winning eight straight matches, the BYU men's tennis team let a victory over the defending Mountain West Conference champion New Mexico Lobos slip away on Friday afternoon, losing the last three matches to fall 4-3.

The Cougars, now at 8-5 on the season and 1-1 in the conference, won the doubles point by winning at the number one and number three spots. Gert Vilms and Carlos Lozano defeated Takeshi Itoh and Bart Scott, 8-4, and Jeff Olsen and Eric Nyman defeated Diego Garza and Kyle Russell, 8-6.

In singles, BYU won at the number one and two spots with Lozano and Vilms to take a 3-1 lead. But, in the last three matches of the day, New Mexico escaped with the victory by winning singles at the number three, four and five spots.

Eric Nyman had his string of seven straight victories snapped when he lost to Bart Scott, 6-3, 7-6. New Mexico's Diego Garza defeated Michael Gysens 6-3, 7-5 (7-2) to take the victory.

Both BYU and New Mexico will be in action again tomorrow as the Cougars take on Air Force and New Mexico competes against Utah. In the other match at BYU on Friday, Utah defeated the Air Force Academy, 5-2.

RESULTS:      BYU  3       UNM   4
Singles: 
#1 Carlos Lozano def. Takeshi Itoh        6-1, 6-4        BYU
#2 Gert Vilms def. Michael Polasek        6-2, 6-2        BYU
#3 Bart Scott def. Eric Nyman             6-3, 7-6        UNM
#4 Diego Garza def. Michael Gysens        6-3, 7-5 (7-2)  UNM
#5 Andrew Irving def. Jeff Harbach        7-6, 7-5        UNM
#6 John Kowalski def. Matt Stohl          6-1, 6-2        UNM
Doubles: 
#1 Lozano/Vilms def. Itoh/Scott                8-4        BYU
#2 Irving/Salazar def. Rudjuk/Stohl            8-4        UNM
#3 Olsen/Nyman def. Garza/Russell              8-6        BYU