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BYU and UNLV Advance to 2007 MWC Men's Tennis Finals
Cougars and Rebels pull off semifinal upsets to set up championship match
April 27, 2007 CLICK HERE for results, recaps, photos and MORE! USAFA, Colo. - No. 5 seed BYU knocked off No. 1 San Diego State, 4-3, to advance to the MWC Men's Tennis Championship finals which will be held at the Air Force Academy Saturday at 1 p.m MT. The Cougars will face No. 4 UNLV, who upset No. 2 TCU, 4-0, in Friday's semifinals. No. 5 BYU 4, No. 1 San Diego State 3
For the second consecutive day, BYU's James Ludlow rallied from a one-set deficit to win the deciding match and propel the fifth-seeded Cougars to a 4-3 upset victory over top-seeded San Diego State in the semifinals of the 2007 Mountain West Conference Men's Tennis Championships at the Air Force Academy. BYU improved its record to 14-13 and will face UNLV in the finals on Saturday, April 27 at 2 p.m. San Diego State, ranked 47th in the country, fell to 16-8. Ludlow, who defeated New Mexico's Max Jones at the No. 1 position on Thursday in three sets to clinch the 4-3 win over the Lobos in the quarterfinals, dropped the first set, 6-0, to 38th-ranked Markus Dickhardt at the top spot on Friday. But Ludlow persisted and took the final two sets, 6-2, 6-3, to break a 3-all deadlock and send the Cougars to the championship match. The Aztecs jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after Achim Ceban and Bill Timu won the No. 2 doubles match in a tiebreaker, 8-6, over BYU's Chip Hand and Jonathan Sanchez to clinch the point. BYU won the No. 1 doubles match as Ludlow and Dominik Kaufhold downed Dickhardt and Christian Groh, 8-3. SDSU's No. 3 team of Anthony Gomez and Robert Sabo defeated Cassidy Mears and Cale Planck, 8-5. Kaufhold tied the match at 1-all with a 6-4, 6-3 victory at the No. 3 spot over SDSU's Anthony Gomez, but Anthony's teammate, Juan Gomez, gave the Aztecs a 2-1 lead with by defeating Cassidy Mears, 6-4, 6-3, at No. 5. Hand evened the match for BYU by downing Groh, 6-3, 6-4, and Sanchez gave BYU its first lead at 3-2 with a three-set victory at No. 4 singles over Ceban, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. Sabo won the No. 6 match in straight sets, 7-6, 6-2, over Planck, to tie the match at 3-all and set up the dramatic finish at No. 1 singles. Singles
Doubles
No. 3 UNLV 4, No. 2 TCU 0
The UNLV Rebels posted their second consecutive shut out Friday and advanced to the finals of the 2007 Mountain West Conference Men's Tennis Championships with a 4-0 victory over TCU at the Air Force Academy. UNLV, seeded No. 3 at the tournament, improved to 12-13 and will face the No. 5 seed BYU in the championship match on Saturday, April 28 at 2 p.m. With the loss, the second-seeded Horned Frogs fell to 10-12. The Rebels took an early 1-0 lead with victories at the Nos. 2 and 3 doubles matches. The No. 2 match came off the court first as Jonathan Hooper and Wesley Burrows defeated Radu Barbu and Chris Biro, 8-4. TCU claimed the No. 1 match as Cosmin Cotet and Kriegler Brink downed Elliott Wronski and Brett Hunter, 8-5, setting up the deciding match at No. 3. UNLV's Slavko Bijelica and David Campbell won that No. 3 match in thrilling fashion, 9-8, over Andrew Ulrich and Caleb Bulls. The UNLV duo won the tiebreaker, 7-2. UNLV used that momentum to win three singles matches and claim the team victory. Luca Barlocchi made it 2-0 with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Stuart Row, followed by Campbell, who won the No. 5 match over Ulrich, 6-3, 6-3. Burrows clinched the match for the Rebels at the No. 3 position with a 7-6(5), 6-3 win over Barbu. The No. 1 match between UNLV's Wronski and Cotet was halted with Wronski leading 4-3 in the third set, while the Nos. 2 and 4 matches were stopped in the second set. Singles
Doubles
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