Cougars Come Up Short At Regional Championships

BOISE, Idaho, (Jan. 21, 2006) -- The BYU men's tennis team fought hard but came up short in the Mountain Region Championship Playoff on Saturday, losing to Colorado 4-2 and failing to qualify for the ITA National Indoor Championships. A Cougar win would have allowed the team to advance to the National Indoor Championships for the first time in school history.

The Cougars came out ready to play, starting with the singles points. James Ludlow defeated No. 60 Eric Molnar 6-4, 6-1 on court No.1 to get the Cougars off on the right foot. At the other end Jose Lechuga beat Marek Dvorak 6-3, 6-4, wrapping up the only two points BYU would score in the playoff. Junior Chip Hand did all he could do to keep the Cougars close, taking Peter Bjork the full three sets. Hand came out strong, winning his first set and seeming in control. But Bjork came storming back, controlling the second set and cruising to a 6-1 win. The third set saw both competitors playing their hardest and exchanging points until Bjork was able to squeak out the victory and win the match 4-6, 6-1, 7-6.

Because Colorado earned the four points necessary to win during singles play, no doubles matches took place.

BYU will stay on the road through next week, heading to California to play Santa Barbara on Jan. 23, No. 5 UCLA on Jan. 25 and Pepperdine on Jan. 27.

Colorado v.s. Brigham Young 
Colorado 4  BYU 2
Singles 
1 -- James Ludlow, BYU def. Eric Molnar (No. 60), Colo. (6-4, 6-1)
2 -- Peter Bjork, Colo. def. Chip Hand, BYU (4-6, 6-1, 7-6)
3 --Jan Zelezny, Colo. def Jonathan Sanchez, BYU (6-3, 6-3)
4 --Marko Bundalo, Colo. def. Dominik Kaufhold, BYU (6-4, 7-5)
5 --Chad Tsuda, Colo. def. Ivan Kokurin, BYU (6-2, 6-3)
6 -- Jose Lechuga, BYU def. Marek Dvorak, Colo. (6-3, 6-4)
(No doubles matches were played)