Ducks Waddle Past Cougars

EUGENE,Ore. (January 29, 2004) -- On the first day of its three day road trip, the BYU men's tennis team (No. 68) fell to No. 60-ranked Oregon Ducks 5-2 Thursday night in Eugene. The Cougars fall to 2-1 on the season while Oregon moves to 2-0.

"In college tennis, everybody is so good," head coach Brad Pearce said. "There will be a lot of split matches. It's hard to win day after day at one two and three. We saw that today."

With Oregon gaining the early advantage in doubles play, the Cougars had a hard time recovering from the deficit later in singles competition. Top seeded Erik Nyman and Nima Roshan struggled to get past the Duck duo falling 8-5.

"Our doubles is still struggling," Pearce said. "We missed Jose Lechuga in the doubles and singles lineups today. Having Jose out of the doubles play is so tough. We need that first point to gain the early confidence and we just didn't get it."

Freshman Chip Hand pulled off a big win for the Cougars defeating Marcus Schiller in a three-set thriller 7-6, 4-6, 6-2. Hand's win contributed to one of the two points for BYU.

Another highlight for BYU was Ivan Kokurin's win over Aaron Spencer posting a 7-6, 6-3 victory. Kokurin, from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is a new recruit who joined the Cougar Squad only three weeks ago and has added more depth to coach Pearce's lineup.

The BYU men's tennis team will put this loss in the books and look to more successful results against an equally tough Louisiana-Lafayette team tomorrow at Noon, also played in Eugene.

"Tomorrow is a good match-up for us against Louisiana," Pearce said. "I think we'll be ready."

Following the match against Louisiana, the Cougars will travel north to Seattle to face their highest ranked opponent of the season, the eleventh ranked Washington Huskies Saturday.

BYU vs. OREGON
Doubles:
Swinnen/ Spencer (UO) def Nyman/Roshan (BYU) 			8-5
Bieri/Kost (UO) def. Hand/Kokurin (BYU)			8-2
King/Pickard (UO) def. Bradshaw/Kaufhold (BYU)		8-4
Singles:
Ivan Kokurin (BYU) def. Aaron Spencer (UO) 			7-6, 6-3
Chip Hand (BYU) def. Marcus Schiller (UO) 			7-6, 4-6, 6-3
Thomas Bieri (UO) def. Richard Dasek (BYU) 			6-1, 6-1
Manuel Kost (UO) def. Nima Roshan (BYU)			6-3, 6-4
Sven Swinnen (UO) def. Erik Nyman (BYU)			6-4, 7-5
Chris King (UO) def. Alonzo Medina (BYU) 			6-4, 7-6