DENVER – The University of Denver men's tennis team (5-4, 0-0 Summit) went point-for-point with No. 57-ranked BYU but fell in the day's final match and ended with a 4-3 loss on Friday afternoon at Denver Tennis Park.
 
The teams alternated points won all day long with the Pioneers tying things up three different times, but BYU earned its clinching point with a three-set win in the last singles match to wrap up.
 
Doubles:
The doubles point boiled down to an extended battle in the No. 1 matchup, a preview of what the entire dual would become.
 
Denver's No. 2 team of graduate student Connor Robb-Wilcox and sophomore Theo Coats came away with the day's first win, losing just two games for their team-leading 10^th win together in 2025-26 and their fifth in dual match play. A break in their favor in the third game set them up for a four-game win streak on their way to a 6-2 win.
 
BYU leveled things with a 6-3 win at No. 3 doubles, turning all attention to the top court. The first 11 games all went to the serving team. Denver senior Ryoma Mishiro and sophomore Samuel Rovai held set points for 6-6, but the game went to deuce where BYU got the break on what was also match point.
 
Singles:
DU started off singles play strong with wins in four of the six first sets, led by Rovai's 6-3 win in the No. 2 spot. After holding a 3-0 lead to start the match, he ended up needing another break in the eighth game to set him up to serve it out. Unlike the first set, his second set started on serve until he broke for 3-2, the first of four straight games won to seal the victory and draw DU level, 1-1, on the overall scoreboard.
 
BYU went ahead, 2-1, with a win in two sets at No. 4 singles, but DU freshman Aaron Beduhn added his own straight-sets win to pull Denver even again. Both servers struggled early, and the players alternated breaks through much of the first set until Beduhn held at deuce for 5-4 and then broke to claim the first set in the next game. The freshman went down a break early in the second set but fought back to get on serve at 4-4 and forced things to a tiebreak, where he also rallied after going down a minibreak at the changeover and saving a set point at 5-6 to win the final three points and secure the match.
 
The final three singles matches all went to third sets with the Cougars taking the first of the three to wrap up, doing so at No. 3 singles to get within a point of the dual. Senior Raffaello Papajcik kept Denver alive in the No. 1 singles match, claiming the first set after exchanging breaks and winning a deuce point in what would be the set's final game for a 6-4 lead. BYU's Adam Chodur got back on even terms after winning the second set, setting up what would be a contentious final frame. An early Papajcik break turned into a 4-4 scoreline before Papajcik went up a break again for 6-5 and fended off a break point back in the next game to win it at deuce, giving Denver a third point overall.
 
Everything came down to a third set at No. 5 singles. DU's Robb-Wilcox captured the first set, 6-2, after winning the final four games and had fought back from a 0-4 deficit in the second set, only to drop it with a late break surrendered. The returner won each of the first five games before BYU's Caden Hasler held for 4-2 with what ended up being the deciding game on his way to a 6-4 win to clinch the dual for the visiting team.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team starts a new six-match road trip when it visits Air Force on Sunday, March 1 at 11 a.m. MT.