San Diego, Calif (April 30, 2005)--BYU repeated as Conference Champions with their tough 4-2 win over UNLV and BYU Coach Craig Manning was awarded Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year for his second time during his short 6 year tenure at BYU.
"That was one of the toughest matches I have ever been associated with," said Manning. "I kept waiting for one team to take the momentum but it was just neck and neck the whole time. But we pulled it out and it's a great win."
BYU knew it was going to be tough, but this was a little unexpected. UNLV was not going to bow out to the regular season champs with out a fight, playing BYU tough for every point.
BYU pulled ahead early with their crucial wins on the doubles court. The doubles was up for grabs until BYU's Lauren Jones and Dolly Chang snagged the first win 8-5 on the 2 doubles court. Then Anastasia Soukrova and Jennifer Miccoli snuck in a 9-8 win after giving up a huge lead. That gave BYU a 1-0 lead going into singles.
Then the gloves came off. BYU and UNLV duked it out on every court. Because of a injured shoulder, freshman Jennifer Miccoli was pulled from her usual spot at 5 singles and replaced with Dolly Chang who normally plays 6. Senior Rebecca Pike was then penciled in to play in her final Conference match---and she delivered.
UNLV tied the lead at 1 all with a win on the 5 singles court. That gave the Rebels some momentum and shortly pulled ahead with a win at 1 singles. But Coach Manning's girls are fighters and scrapped their way back into the lead with huge wins from lone senior Rebecca Pike 6-2,2-6,6-3 and sophomore Sofia Holden 7-6,6-2.
That gave the Cougars a 3-2 lead with Anastasia Sourkova and Olga Boulytcheva in their third sets. Boulytcheva won her first set but dropped her second while Sourkova gave up a tough first set only to bounce back to win the second.
Both girls were up 5-3 in their third sets only to lose the leads to the pesky UNLV Rebels. Boulytcheva pulled out the fifth game and with the championship match within grasps and the crowd on their toes, she won the final game to give BYU the win.
The Cougars have won the Championship for the 3rd time in Coach Manning's 6 years. After the match he was also presented as the MWC's Coach of the Year for his second time. He was named Coach of the Year during the 2001 season.
Results:
Singles:
1.Gantcheva(UNLV) def. Jones(BYU) 6-2,6-4
2.Boulytcheva(BYU) def. Zsiros(UNLV) 6-4,5-7,6-4
3.Sourkova(BYU) vs. Ortiz-Luis(SDSU)DNF
4.Holden(BYU) def. Marin(UNLV) 7-6,6-2
5.Treber(UNLV) def. Chang(BYU) 6-0,6-2
6.Pike(BYU) def. Smith(UNLV) 6-2,2-6,6-3
Doubles:
1.Sourkova/Miccoli(BYU) def. Gantcheva/Marin(UNLV) 9-8
2.Jones/Chang(BYU) def. Ortiz/Tempelfelde 8-5
3.Boulytcheva/Holden(BYU) vs. Zsiros/Smith DNF