PROVO, Utah (January, 21st 2005)--BYU squeaked past a deceptively good Washington State team today, as they held off the charge to beat the Washington State Cougars 4-3.
The BYU women started the day off right, sweeping Washington State in doubles but struggled to find a rhythm in singles as they split the matches with Washington State at three apiece.
"It was good today, we played great doubles but we are not playing our game yet," said head coach Craig Manning. "We are almost there, we still need to keep fighting."
Something sophomore Lauren Jones took to heart. In the match of the day, Jones playing the number one singles for the Cougars, showed her true colors as she powered her way to victory in a hardnosed, grind-it-out three set match against a tough Orsolya Sallai. Jones won the first set 6-4 but dropped the second by the same score 4-6. In the third set, she came storming back from 0-2 deficit to take a lead which she would not relinquish, winning the third match 6-4.
BYU's Olga Boulytcheva also played well at the three singles spot, scorching Washington State's Chris Martinez 6-2,6-0. Cougar senior Rebecca Pike came up with BYU's other singles win defeating Aleksandra Stefanova 6-4,6-0.
BYU improves to 2-0 on the year and faces the tenth ranked Washington Huskies at home tomorrow at 10 am.
Results: BYU VS. WASHINGTON STATE
SINGLES
1.Jones def. Sallai 6-4,4-6,6-4
2.Burduli def. Surkova 6-4,6-2
3.Boulytcheva def. Martinez 6-2,6-0
4.Gaal def. Holden 6-2, 3-6 (10-7)
5.Toth def. MacFarlane 6-4,4-6 (7-4)
6.Pike def. Stefanova 6-4,6-0
DOUBLES
1.MacFarlane/Jones def. Martinez/Sallai 8-5
2.Surkova/Chang def. Burduli/Stefanova 8-3
3.Pike/Boulytcheva def. Gaal/Toth 8-5
BYU WINS 4-3