BYU Earns Win In First Home Match Of Season Over Air Force

PROVO -- Overcoming a tough Air Force team, the BYU men's tennis team opened its home season with the 7-0 victory over the Falcons Friday.

The Cougars withheld the three Falcon doubles teams to win two of the three matches and take the 1-0 lead. The doubles team of senior Damien Ward and sophomore Gert Vilms won the number one doubles match 9-7 over Air Force's Nolan Cooper and Eric Pittman. In number two doubles, 16th-ranked Carlos Lozano and Nic Losee fought for the 9-8 win.

"I thought we played very well tonight," BYU coach Jim Osborne said. "Air Force is a very tough team. They play great doubles and make you work hard to win."

In singles, Ward defeated Cooper in number one singles 6-3, 7-6, leading the way for the Cougars to sweep the singles matches.

"This was a nice first home match win," Osborne said. "We wanted to raise our first serve percentage and I haven't seen the charts yet, but I'm sure we accomplished our goal."

The Cougars improve to 4-1 in dual matches and will next be in action when they host Portland on Feb. 18 at 5 p.m.

Singles:						
1. Ward (BYU) def. Cooper, 6-3, 7-6			 
2. Vilms (BYU) def. Ramirez, 6-1, 6-0
3. Losee (BYU) def. Rainey, 6-0, 6-4		
4. White (BYU) def. Pittman, 6-3, 6-2
5. Lozano (BYU) def. Fike, 6-2, 7-5
6. Rudjuk (BYU) def. West, 6-4, 7-5
Doubles:
1. Ward/Vilms (BYU) def. Cooper/Pittman, 9-7
2. Losee/Lozano (BYU) def. C. Zielinski/G. Zielinski, 9-8
3. Ramirez/Fike (AFA) def. White/Rudjuk, 8-4