Netters Finish H. E. B. Tournament Champions

CORPUS CHRISTI -- Increasing its winning streak to five matches, the No. 50 BYU men’s tennis team swept through the H. E. B. Tournament of Champions to grab the title in Saturday’s 5-0 final match against host No. 54 Texas A&M, Corpus Christi.

“We haven’t given up a single point in this tournament,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “It just shows every player is coming out to fight. We were playing under tough conditions, but we finished strong when other teams struggled. We were finalists in this tournament last year, so it’s great coming home with the trophy.”

The Cougars (9-4) took the doubles point with wins on courts 1 and 2. Evan Urbina and Patrick Kawka teamed up to defeat Laurent Montoisy and Gergo Weidinger 8-5 and Georgy Batrakov and Thomas Shubert defeated Nathan Robinson and Robert Raguz 8-5.

Batrakov recorded BYU’s first singles win on Court 2 against Langford 6-2, 6-1. Smith followed up with a win against Raguz on Court 3 (6-4, 6-4). Kawka took the BYU victory with a 6-4, 7-6 win against Tave. Roman Warias finished just after with a straight-set victory on Court 6 to pull the score to 5-0.

The win is the Cougars’ fifth-straight sweep, recording 27 straight points. The team defeated No. 52 DePaul and No. 45 Maryland to reach the finals.

BYU is on the road again Friday for a match against Boise State.

No. 50 BYU vs. No. 54 Texas A&M, Corpus Christi
BYU-5     TAMCC-0
Doubles
1. Urbina/Kawka (BYU) def. Montoisy/Weidinger (TAMCC) 8-5
2. Batrakov/Shubert (BYU) def. Robinson/Raguz (TAMCC) 8-5
3. Warias/Smith (BYU) vs. Langford/Tave (TAMCC)7-6, unfinished
Singles
1. Evan Urbina (BYU) vs. Laurent Montoisy (TAMCC) 4-6, 5-4, unfinished
2. Georgy Batrakov (BYU) def. James Langford (TAMCC) 6-2, 6-1
3. Spencer Smith (BYU) def. Robert Raguz (TAMCC) 6-4, 6-4
4. Patrick Kawka (BYU) def. Aurelien Tave (TAMCC) 6-4, 7-6
5. Thomas Shubert (BYU) vs. Matt Westmoreland (TAMCC) 6-7, 7-5, unfinished
6. Roman Warias (BYU) vs. Gergo Weidinger (TAMCC) 6-4, 6-2
Order of finish: 2, 3, 4, 6