PROVO -- The BYU women's tennis team took some time to get rolling in its first regular season match, but once it did it never stopped. The Cougars continued their Mountain West Conference dominance by defeating Air Force 6-1 in Provo Saturday afternoon.
Things did not look good for BYU in doubles play, but Lindsay Ferrell and Dominique Reynolds made a fantastic comeback at the No. 1 spot to steal the doubles point from the Falcons. With the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches already complete, Ferrell and Reynolds were down 5-2 to Brooke Parsons and Laura Nigro with the doubles point on the line. Head coach Craig Manning never lost confidence in his No. 1 team.
"I thought we could still win," Manning said. "We just had to start playing the way we know we can."
Ferrell and Reynolds won the next six games to take the match 8-6, and the rest of the team took the momentum and ran with it. In singles play, BYU took five of six matches, with the only loss coming at the No. 1 spot. Parsons, Air Force's senior leader, got revenge for the doubles loss by beating Ferrell 6-3, 7-5. But Ferrell, who has been slowed by a toe injury and hasn't played since November, was not completely 100 percent.
"Lindsay Ferrell hasn't played a set, in practice or a match, since November," Manning said. "She really came through for us in her doubles match and played well in singles."
Ferrell wasn't the only Cougar to shine on Saturday. Freshman Nicole Schneider teamed with Elyse Carlson to win the doubles match at the No. 3 spot, then defeated Kristen Jones 6-1, 6-1 in singles play. The amazing thing is Schneider has only been with the team for three days, having just arrived from Australia earlier in the week.
BYU has not lost a MWC match in the last two years. The Cougars won't play in the MWC again until March 22, when they meet up wtih UNLV. BYU will head east to play South Carolina and Georgia this upcoming weekend.