Tough Two Days For Cougars

Palo Alto, Calif. (Feb. 25, 2006) --The No.75 BYU men's tennis team got off to a rocky start on its four-match tour of the California Coast. Two matches into its road trip the Cougars are without a win, having lost to Pacific 6-1 on Friday in Stockton, Calif., and No. 7 Stanford 7-0 on Saturday. The Cougars now sit at 3-7 on the season.

The day belonged to Ivan Kokurin against Pacific (7-2). The BYU senior won both the matches he played against the Tigers, teaming up with Dominik Kaufhold to defeat Moritz Stark and Alan Kelly. That was the only doubles match the Cougars would win against Pacific. The Tigers clinched the doubles point and almost swept through the singles, but Kokurin came through with another win. He defeated Tim Koniarski in straight sets on court No. 4, scoring the only point of the match for BYU.

Fortunes didn't change for BYU against No. 7 Stanford (6-0), as the Cardinal handed the Cougars their second loss in as many days. Stanford swept both singles and doubles, but the Cougars didn't go down with out a fight. James Ludlow nearly pulled off the upset against No. 13 KC Corkery, winning the first set 6-4, and then going neck and neck with Corkery through the next two sets. Corkery proved too strong, though, and pulled out the three set win 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Jose Lechuga did all he could to keep the Cougars in it as well. After losing the first set to Blake Muller, Lechuga cam storming back and forced the match into a third-set tiebreaker. Lechuga couldn't hold on though, and was defeated by Muller.

The Cougars now make their way to the Bay Area, where they will face off with the University of San Francisco on Feb. 27 and California Feb. 28. Both matches start at 1 p.m. PST.

Pacific 6   BYU 1 
Doubles:
1. Vestil/Zdravkovic (PAC) def. Ludlow/Lechuga (BYU), 8-1 
2. Sigurdsson/Koniarski (PAC) def. Hand/Sanchez (BYU), 8-6 
3. Kokurin/Kaufhold (BYU) def. Starke/Kelly (PAC), 8-5 
Singles: 
1. No. 67 Arnar Sigurdsson (PAC) def. James Ludlow (BYU), 6-2, 6-3 
2. Jorgen Vestil (PAC) def. Dominik Kaufhold (BYU), 6-1, 6-1 
3. Vladimir Zdravkovic (PAC) def. Christian Hand (BYU), 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 
4. Ivan Kokurin (BYU) def. Tim Koniarski (PAC), 6-4, 6-3 
5. Moritz Starke (PAC) def. Jose Luis Lechuga (BYU), 6-4, 7-6 (4) 
6. Alan Kelly (PAC def. Jonathan Sanchez (BYU), 6-2, 6-4 
Stanford 7  BYU 0
Doubles 
1. KC Corkery/Matt Bruch (S) d.  Jose Lechuga/James Ludlow (BYU), 8-3 
2. James Pade/Blake Muller (S) d.Christian Hand/Jonathon Sanchez (BYU), 8-2 
3. Jon Wong/James Wan (S) d. Dominik Kaufhold/Ivan Kokurin (BYU), 8-5 
Singles 
1. KC Corkery (S) d.  James Ludlow (BYU), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 
2. James Pade (S) d. Dominik Kaufhold (BYU), 6-2, 6-3 
3. Matt Bruch (S) d. Christian Hand (BYU), 6-3, 6-4 
4. James Wan (S) d. Ivan Kokurin (BYU), 6-0, 6-3 
5. Blake Muller (S) d. Jose Lechuga (BYU), 6-2, 6-7, 1-0 
6. Phil Kao (S) d. Jonathon Sanchez (BYU), 6-3, 6-1 
order of finish: 
Doubles 1, 2, 3; 
Singles 6, 2, 3*, 4, 5, 1 
*clinching match