BYU tennis: No. 5 Pearce wins before rain delays affect tournament

LOS ANGELES – Rain delays kept several Cougars from finishing their matches but not before freshman tennis player John Pearce, who entered the Southern California Intercollegiate Championships as a No. 5 seed, won his first match Thursday, 6-0, 6-2, at UCLA’s campus.

Sophomores Francis Sargeant and Keaton Cullimore both had their matches interrupted by untimely rain. When his game was called, Sargeant was up one set against the No. 3 seed Mousheg Hovhannisyan. The two will finish their matches tomorrow.

“I thought John played a great match and was fortunate to get off the court before the rain,” head coach Brad Pearce said. “Francis [Sargeant] is playing great tennis against the No. 3 seed from Pepperdine and I’m excited to see him close out that match tomorrow.”

Pearce dominated his first match over Jakob Karnopp from San Diego, 6-0, 6-2.

In the qualifying singles round, freshman Scott Bohne lost to Concordia’s Christian Wickenhause, 6-2, 6-1. Junior Travis Fillmore played a long match but couldn’t seal the victory against Kona Luu from UCSD, 7-6, 1-6, 10-7.

Nikki Rae, the third freshman on the team, put up a good fight but fell to Andrew Carlisle from San Diego, 7-6, 7-5. Rae then played in the qualifying back draw and defeated Rajeev Herekar from UCSD, 6-3, 6-2.

None of the doubles matches were played due to the rain. Play will resume Friday at 10 a.m. PST.

The tournament can be followed by visiting USTA’s website.

Aaron Sorenson is the tennis sports information director at BYU.