April 24, 2003

PROVO, Utah - In the first match of the MWC Men's Tennis Championship, fourth-seeded Air Force beat fifth-seeded Utah 4-3 on Thursday.

Air Force jumped out to an early 1-0 lead by winning two of the three doubles matches. In singles, MWC Co-Player of the Year Shannon Buck of Air Force won easily at the No. 1 spot by beating Daniel Lohff 6-1, 6-0. The Falcons were up 3-1 at one point in the match, but the Utes came back to tie things up. The match came down to the No. 2 singles position, and Erik Pittman of Air Force was able to come back from losing the first set to defeat Roeland Brateanu 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Air Force will play top-seeded San Diego State in the semi-finals on Friday at 9 a.m. while Utah will play the loser of the BYU/UNLV match on Friday at 5 p.m.

Air Force - 4; Utah - 3

Singles
1. Shannon Buck (AFA) def. Daniel Lohff (Utah) 6-1, 6-0
2. Erik Pittman (AFA) def. Roeland Brateanu (Utah) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
3. Tyler Poulson (Utah) def. Tyler McClung (AFA) 6-4, 6-4
4. Thomas Gryzb (Utah) def. Justin Mancinelli (AFA) 6-1, 6-2
5. Nick Coutts (Utah) def. Trevor Johnson (AFA) 7-5, 6-0
6. Chris Dong (AFA) def. Kaisorn Chaichana (AFA) 6-2, 6-2

Doubles
1. Pittman/McClung (AFA) def. Brateanu/Coutts (Utah) 8-4
2. Poulson/Gryzb (Utah) vs. Dong/Martin Black (AFA) 6-7, DNF
3. Buck/Tyler West (AFA) def. Lohff/Mike Bullarad (Utah) 8-6