Young Guns In San Diego

Young Guns In San DiegoYoung Guns In San Diego

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The No. 22 BYU Women's Tennis team is looking to defend its Mountain West Conference title and compete for its third Conference Championship in five years this weekend.

The Cougars, who captured the tournament's No. 1 seed with a perfect 7-0 conference campaign, will open up against the Air Force on Thursday, April 28 at 2 p.m. If they win the girls will play the winner out of Utah and New Mexico the following day. The winner of that match goes to the championship on Saturday.

Captain of the Ship

Since Head Coach Craig Manning took the reins of BYU's historic women's tennis program during the 1999-2000 season, the team has never finished lower than 3rd in the Mountain West with first place finishes in 2001 and 2004. In his seventh year as the coach, Manning has an overall record of 91-53.

Perfection

BYU clinched the 2004-2005 Mountain West Conference's regular season title with a perfect 7-0 record. The team opened up Conference play with a 7-0 sweep of Utah in early March. Next Colorado State and Wyoming both fell victim to the Cougars in Provo. The Rams also fell 7-0, while the Cowgirls managed a point in a losing effort 6-1. Then at Colorado Springs, BYU overcame New Mexico 4-3 for its tightest Conference victory. The next day they swept Air Force 7-0. In their final home matches, the girls beat both San Diego State and UNLV 6-1 to claim the regular season crown.

The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall

This squad does not scare easy. This year the Cougars have beaten eight teams ranked in the top 75. The victims include No. 75 Kansas State, No. 64 Oklahoma, No. 33 Wisconsin, No. 24 South Carolina, No. 25 Notre Dame, No. 47 New Mexico, No. 43 San Diego State and No. 45 UNLV.

Tale Of The Unbeatens

BYU's third doubles duo in Junior Olga Boulytcheva and Sofia Holden finished out the regular season without ever tasting defeat. The girls were an incredible 14-0. Since being paired up for the first time on January 28 against Kansas, the girls have ripped off 14 straight victories with their last being their most dramatic of all. The duo found themselves down 7-4 and one game away from losing their final regular season match. But the girls refused to go down without a fight. They managed to battle back and tie the match at 7 all. Then they dug in their heels and ripped off two straight games, coming from behind to claim the match 9-7 over UNLV's No. 60 ranked doubles team.

No Place To Play

It's not exactly the first choice of opposing coaches. At home the Cougars have been simply dominant. This year the team's only home loss was to then No. 10 Washington. Since that point the girls have won 11 straight including big wins over top ranked Norte Dame, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. In the past two seasons the team is a combined 18-3 at home.

2004-2005 MWC STANDINGS

Team(rk.)

1. BYU (22) 7-0

2. New Mexico (47) 6-1

3. UNLV (45) 5-2

4. San Diego St. (43) 4-3

5. Utah 3-4

6. Colorado St. 2-5

7. Wyoming 1-6

8. Air Force 0-7