Men's Tennis Slips Past Horned Frogs

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LEHI, Utah -- No. 116 freshman Patrick Kawka’s three-set singles win secured a 4-3 victory for the No. 38 BYU men’s tennis team Saturday in its first conference match against No. 74 TCU.

“We knew TCU was a good team and we knew they fight hard,” BYU head coach Brad Pearce said. “It was tough being down the doubles point, but I’m proud of our guys for bouncing back and not letting that be a deciding point for them. We showed that we’re going to fight, win or lose the doubles point. It was a tough match to start off conference play.”

Kawka took on Horned Frog Soren Goritzka on Court 4 and won the deciding battle of the match 6-7, 6-4, 6-4. Preceding the tiebreaker match, Georgy Batrakov recorded BYU’s first point with his straight-set win against TCU’s Slah Mbarek 6-2, 6-2. Spencer Smith and Evan Urbina pushed the Cougars’ (14-4, 1-0) score to 3-2 with their singles wins. Smith defeated Zach Nichols 6-3, 7-6 and Urbina defeated No. 78 Emanuel Brighiu 6-3, 6-4.

TCU (6-11, 1-1) tied the score 3-3 after wins on Court 5 and Court 6. Daniel Sanchez brought down BYU’s Roman Warias (6-4, 6-0) and Christopher Price defeated Thomas Shubert 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, leaving Kawka and Gotirzka to decide the match.

BYU took the win despite losing the doubles point to TCU. To start off the match, Kawka and Urbina fell 8-0 to Brighiu and Price. On Court 2, Batrakov of Shubert pulled off an 8-3 win against Mbarek and Goritzka, continuing their undefeated record. TCU’s Nash and Chappel clinched the doubles point for the Horned Frogs with their win against Smith and Warias.

Thursday, the Cougars take on UNLV in Las Vegas before traveling to California to face San Diego State Saturday.

No. 38 BYU vs. No. 74 TCU
BYU-4     TCU-3
Doubles
1. No. 34 Brighiu/Price (TCU) def. Kawka/Urbina (BYU) 8-0
2. Batrakov/Shubert (BYU) def. Mbarek/Goritzka (TCU) 8-3
3. Nash/Chappel (TCU) def. Smith/Warias (BYU) 9-7
Order of finish: 1, 2, 3
Singles
1.Evan Urbina (BYU) def. No. 78 Emanuel Brighiu (TCU) 6-3, 6-4
2.Georgy Batrakov (BYU) def. Slah Mbarek (TCU) 6-2, 6-2
3.Spencer Smith (BYU) def. Zach Nichols (TCU) 6-3, 7-6
4.No. 116 Patrick Kawka def. Soren Goritzka (TCU) 6-7, 6-4, 6-4
5.Christopher Price (TCU) def. Thomas Shubert (BYU) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
6.Daniel Sanchez (TCU) def. Roman Warias (BYU) 6-4, 6-0
Order of finish: 6, 2, 3, 1, 5, 4