The men's tennis team played its first outdoor match at home this season Tuesday, March 25, 2008, when they dropped a close 4-3 match to No. 58 UC Irvine.

The Cougars earned the doubles point, winning two out of three close matches. The only doubles loss for the Cougars came at the No. 3 position where Evan Urbina and Cassidy Mears came back from a 2-5 deficit to tie the match but eventually fell 9-8 to their Anteater opponents.

"I thought we had great energy going out there," freshman Daniel Hwang said.

Hwang and freshman A.J. Young both won their singles matches to earn the Cougars' other two points and remain undefeated on the day.

BYU needed only one more win with three matches left to clinch the victory, but the Cougars were unable to overpower their Irvine opponents at positions one through three.

"We were right there," Hwang said. "We should have won the match."

The Cougars will take a break Wednesday before beginning conference play in Las Vegas this weekend. Thursday will begin three days of tough matches for the men's team, which will include UNLV, Air Force and No. 31 TCU.

The defending Mountain West Conference champion UNLV dropped to 6-8 on the season with a 7-0 loss to Cal Berkeley last week.

Freshmen Thomas Shubert and Evan Urbina lost to UNLV opponents during the fall and BYU lost 5-2 to the Rebels last season.

Friday will find the Cougars facing a talented and ranked TCU team. The Horned Frogs are 13-5 on the season after a 7-0 loss to Pepperdine.

TCU's Cosmin Cotet is ranked in the top 30, and he and doubles partner Kriegler Brink are ranked in the top 50. Brink is 16-1 this season with his first and only loss coming last week in the match against Pepperdine.

The Cougars will end their stay in Las Vegas with a match against Air Force on Saturday. The Falcons earned their 10th win of the season last week with a 6-1 victory over UMKC.

BYU beat the Falcons each time the two teams have met since 2000 with the most recent win being a 7-0 sweep last season.