San Diego, Calif. (April 29, 2005)---In a thrilling match, the Cougars beat San Diego State 4-2 to advance to the Mountain West Conference Championships for the fifth time in six years.
It seemed like things were going to go BYU's way early. In doubles Dolly Chang had the shot of the day or maybe even the shot of the year. SDSU hit a line drive just over the net, Chang advanced on the ball and sliced it. The ball just cleared the net but it had so much back spin it bounced cleanly back to BYU's side. That was the kinda day BYU had in doubles. The girls easily won 8-1 at 2 singles and 8-2 on 3 singles.
But the home court advantage SDSU had seemed to fuel them in singles. BYU went up early with an easy Sourkova 6-1,6-0 win. That gave BYU a 2-0 lead. Olga Boulytcheva had an uncharacteristically bad day, getting beat for only the fourth time this year 6-4,6-1. Then SDSU tied it up behind a win on 4 doubles 5-7,2-6. Things were starting to get a little hairy.
Chang won her first set 6-1, but the girl made a surge in the second set and tied the match at 6 all. In thrilling fashion, Chang won the second set on a tiebreaker 7-4. That gave BYU a 3-2 overall score and 1 win away from the championship. Holden stepped up to make sure they would be there. She lost her first set 4-6, but came back mad as bee. She cruised in the second set 6-1 and simply blanked her opponent 6-0 for the win.
BYU faces UNLV tomorrow at 2 p.m. for the MWC Championship.
Results:
Singles
1.Jones vs. Vidov(DNF)
2.Haverlandova(SDSU) def. Boulytcheva(BYU) 6-4,6-1
3.Sourkova(BYU) def. Krausova(SDSU) 6-1,6-0
4.Holden(BYU) def. Erichsen(SDSU) 4-6,6-1,6-0
5.Spaeth def. Miccoli(BYU) 7-5,6-2
6.Chang(BYU) def. Nielson(SDSU) 6-1,7-6(7-4)
Doubles
1.Sourkova/Miccoli vs. Erichsen/Vidov DNF
2.Jones/Chang def. Krausova/Vidov 8-1
3.Boulytcheva/Holden(BYU) Nielson/Spaeth 8-2