No. 36 Men's Tennis Enters Last Week of Regular Season

PROVO, Utah -- Taking a break from conference play before the last regular season match, the No. 36 BYU men’s tennis team faces No. 8 Stanford Tuesday and rival Utah Saturday.

BYU (18-4, 5-0) will play Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. At 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. The match against Utah will be played at 1 p.m. Saturday at the BYU Outdoor Tennis Courts, weather permitting.

A win against Utah would secure the regular season Conference Champions title for the Cougars, their second consecutive win of the title.

Cougars Georgy Batrakov and Thomas Shubert pulled off impressive doubles wins against No. 54 New Mexico and Air Force Thursday and Saturday, respectively, downing Lobos No. 57 Phil Anderson and Jadon Phillips and Falcons Lance Wilhelm and Steven Young. The duo is 12-1 on the season.

Batrakov holds a 17-match winning streak in singles with a 19-2 record. Freshman No. 110 Patrick Kawka is 28-8 overall in singles and Spencer Smith of Salt Lake City is 22-4.

Stanford (14-5, 4-1) is led by No. 10 Bradley Klahn (21-9 in singles), No. 43 Ryan Thatcher (19-11) and No. 71 Alex Clayton (18-9). No. 4 Klahn and Thatcher team up for doubles with a 32-4 record and Clayton teams up with Ted Kelly, the No. 69 doubles team, with a 10-7 record.

The Utes are 7-13 on the season and 1-4 in conference. Alejandro Medinilla leads the team with a 16-15 singles record. Benito Suriano leads in conference play with a 3-2 record. In doubles, Medinilla and Suriano are 6-6 overall.

A ceremony honoring BYU’s three seniors—Thomas Shubert, Evan Urbina and Roman Warias—will be held after Saturday’s match. The team will also honor former coaches and alumni during the 10-minute break between doubles and singles.

All fans wearing blue Saturday will received a ticket for a free JDawgs hot dog. Fans can win Roger Federer posters and other prizes in a raffle between doubles and singles play.

Spectators may park in the Y Lot parking lots northwest and south of the outdoor courts. Admission is free.