PACIFIC PALISADES -- One singles win each moves BYU's Olga Boulytcheva and Lauren Jones out of the qualifying rounds and places them in the main draw of the ITA Women's All-American Championships.
"This is seriously awesome for these girls," head coach Craig Manning said. "This is as well as anyone at BYU has done in eight years."
Boulytcheva and Jones advanced to the final round of 32 with very impressive wins on Wednesday. Boulytcheva faced Ashley Joelson from UCLA in a back and forth three-set match. Boulytcheva won the first set easily 6-0. But Joelson wasn't done yet, returning the favor by beating Boulytcheva 6-2. However, in the third set Boulytcheva returned to form and won the set and the match going away 6-3 and qualified for the main draw.
"Olga is playing well because she's believing in herself and focusing on playing hard," Manning said." If she really starts to turn it on she could go very far in the tournament."
Jones qualified for the main draw by coming out the victor in an equally difficult two-set match against Nebraska's Kim Hartman. Jones breezed through the first set, winning 6-2 only to discover her opponent wasn't going down easily. The second set looked nothing like the first as both players stepped up the intensity. Tied at six games a piece, the two went into a tiebreaker which Jones wound up winning, giving her the match 6-2, 7-6.
"Lauren has played really tough against some tough competition," Manning said. "She and Olga are playing smart, solid and believing in themselves. If they start playing better than this we won't be home for a few more days."
Matches for the main draw begin Thursday at 10: 00 a.m. Boulytcheva will face Baylor's Carolin Walter while Jones goes up against Alexis Prousis from Northwestern.