PROVO -- Boasting seeded players in both singles and doubles and entering as the No. 1 team in the Central region, the BYU women's tennis team prepares to compete in the Regional Championships Oct. 19-23 at the University of Utah.
"This is another opportunity to see how we're playing and how we can perform better," head coach Craig Manning said.
Carrying the team into the tournament are No. 4 seed Olga Boulytcheva, No. 6 seed Lauren Jones and Anastasia Sourkova, seeded twelfth. The duo of Dolly Chang and Lauren Jones enter as the top-seeded doubles team, and Sofia Holden teams with Olga Boulytcheva as the third seed.
BYU could have had three doubles teams seeded in the top five for the regional competition, but because Jennifer Miccoli is still recovering from knee surgery she will not compete with her partner Anastasia Sourkova. Though unfortunate for the Cougars, Manning said the best thing right now is for Miccoli to get healthy because the team will need her contributions when the season begins.
Considered one of the biggest tournaments of the Cougars' fall season, each player goes into the competition aware of what can come from performing well. The doubles team winner along with the winner and runner-up of the singles competition qualify to play in the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships Nov. 3-6 in Columbus, Ohio.
The tournament has a team component mixed into it as well. A collective team score based on individual player results is given to each team at the end of the tournament to determine the regional team winner. That team then qualifies for the National Team Indoor Championships in February.
Although the regional competition can affect both preseason tournament and individual rankings, Manning said that is the least of the team's worries.
"Our point of view is it's just another tournament. The rankings will take care of themselves during the season," he said.