PROVO -- Three members of the BYU women's tennis team have been invited to compete in the ITA Women's All-American Championships Oct. 4-9 in Pacific Palisades, California. Invitations to the championships are made based on pre-season rankings.
Olga Boulytcheva, Lauren Jones and Dolly Chang make up the Cougars who will be playing in the tournament. Boulytcheva enters the competition ranked No. 69 in the nation in singles and Jones wil compete as the No. 94 ranked singles player in the country. Jones will also play doubles with her partner Dolly Chang. The duo is ranked No. 45 nationally. Those rankings are good enough to allow the three to skip the pre-qualifying rounds of the tournament and start in the qualifying round.
The Cougars don't usually compete in the ITA All-American Championships because pre-qualifying matches take place on Sunday, a day in which BYU has chosen not to compete. However, with the high national rankings owned by Boulytcheva, Jones and Chang, the Cougars will be represented well in this year's tournament.
Two other Cougar's were invited to the play in the tournament but had to turn down the opportunity. Jennifer Miccoli and Anastasia Sourkova are ranked No. 15 in the nation in doubles, a ranking more than good enough to get them into the tournament. But with Miccoli recovering from a recent surgery, the duo had to withdraw from the competition. Nevertheless, the invitation remains a huge compliment to Miccoli and Sourkova considering they are just entering their sophomore years and their ranking comes from their overall record as freshmen.
Cougar head coach Craig Manning said having five of his players selected to play in the tournament is a compliment to them as well as to the program. Although only three of them will actually be competing, he said most important right now is that the team keeps improving and stays healthy. He specially wants to see Miccoli healthy and ready to play by the time the season begins.
"She's very good and we need her back come January," Manning said.
The ITA Women's All-American Championships run from Oct. 1-Oct.9 and are being hosted by the Riviera Tennis Club.