TUCSON, Ariz. – The University of South Alabama men’s tennis team fell to the No. 49 Brigham Young University Cougars 5-2 on the campus of the University of Arizona at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center.

 "BYU is an excellent team with a lot of fighting spirit,” USA head coach Nick Brochu said. “We are young and we are playing better every match.  That's very important in our learning process."

The Jaguar duo of Lucas Viel and Hanno Bartsch defeated BYU’s Cassidy Mears and Thomas Shubert 8-6 at No. 1 doubles. Sophomores Christian Kuehne and Romain Bocaert dropped No. 2 doubles to Spencer Smith and Evan Urbina 8-6. At the No. 3 spot Alexandre Bernard and Dauw Kruger fell to Georgy Batrakov and Daniel Hwang 8-2.

"Our goal was to have a lot of energy in doubles,” Brochu said.”BYU is mostly an indoor team and one of their strengths is doubles. We knew if we could take the doubles point away from them, it would hurt them. We started very well, but couldn't hold down to the lead we had at No. 2 doubles."

In singles action USA picked up its only points of the match at the No. 2 and No. 6 flights. Bocaert defeated the Cougars’ Urbina in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 at the No. 2 spot. At the No. 6 flight Kruger downed Roman Warias 6-2, 7-5. BYU swept all the other singles flights in straight sets. 

"Singles matches were extremely close,” said Brochu. “Romain keeps on dominating his opponents. Dauw played well and closed the match in two sets against a good opponent.

“We lost three close matches that could have gone either way,” Brochu said, “especially if we could have capitalized on some tie-breakers that went BYU's way."

The Jags will be back in action Sunday at 10:30 a.m. when they take on No. 24 Arizona at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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