The newly crowned Mountain West Conference Champs and No. 21 ranked BYU women's tennis team will get one last chance to play in front of their hometown crowd. They will host one of 16 Regional Chhampionships for this year's NCAA tournament, this Fri., and Sat., May 13-14.
The Cougars, who got an automatic bid for winning the Mountain West Conference Championship last weekend, will host No. 36 Sacramento State, Niagara and No. 15 Baylor.
Tickets for the matches are $5 for adults and $3 for all students.
BYU will open the regional against Sacramento State Friday, May 13 at 10 a.m. In the other 10 a.m., match, No. 15 Baylor plays Niagara. The winners meet on Saturdayat 10 a.m., for the region title and a chance to advance to the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16. The final rounds will be played in Athens, Georgia on the campus of the University of Georgia.
The women's Championships are 64-team fields, single elimination tournaments. There are 16 first and second round sites, called regionals, in each tournament.
Conference Recap
The Cougars, who captured the Mountain West Conference Tournament's No. 1 seed with a perfect 7-0 regular conference campaign, opened up tourney play against Air Force. The Cougars swiftly grounded them with a 5-0 sweep. The next few matches, however, were not so easy.
In the second round, the Cougars got up early on hosts SDSU with the doubles point, but the homecourt advantage went to the Aztecs 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 came right back tying up the score beind a win on the number four singles spot, 5-7, 2-6.
BYU's Dolly Chang won her first set 6-1, but SDSU made a surge in the second set and tied the match at 6-6. In thrilling fashion, Chang won the second set on a tiebreaker 7-4. That gave BYU a 3-2 overall score and one win away from the championship. Sophomore Sofia Holden stepped up to make sure they got there. She lost her first set 4-6, but came back mad strong. She cruised in the second set 6-1 and simply blanked her opponent 6-0 for the win and a title match up with UNLV.
In the championship match, BYU pulled ahead early wih 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 two 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.
Both teams battled hard at every position in singles play. Because of an injured shoulder to the Cougars' Jennifer Miccoli, she was pulled from her usual spot at five singles and replaced with Dolly Chang who normally plays at six. Senior Rebecca Pike was then penciled in to play in her final conference match, and she delivered.
UNLV tied the lead at 1-1 all with a win on the five singles court. That gave the Rebels some momentum and shortly pulled ahead with a win at one singles. But Coach Manning's team fought hard 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 three 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 managed to get the upper hand with the set score at 5-4. With the championship match within grasps, and the crowd on their toes, she won the final game to give BYU the win.
Captain of the Ship
Since Head Coach Craig Manning took the reigns 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, 2004 and 2005. In his sixth year as the coach, Manning has an overall record of 91-53. He was also named 2004-2005 MWC Coach of the Year. This was his second award, winning it 2001. He also garnered Region Coach of the Year honors as well.
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 title.