PORTLAND—After getting its first West Coast Conference win against San Francisco earlier this week, the BYU women’s tennis team fell to Portland 6-1 Friday afternoon.
"Portland is tough to play on their courts and we didn't get the doubles point that we needed to start the match," BYU head coach Lauren Jones-Spencer said. "The girls fought hard in singles but we just weren't able to convert the big points today."
Portland (2-5, 1-0 WCC) started the match by winning the doubles point. The Pilots’ Tatiana Grigoryan and Radin Dimitrova quickly knocked off the Cougar duo of Natella Nabieva and Erica Chichoni, 6-1. However, strong doubles play by Savannah Ware and Nicolette Poulsen led to a 6-3 victory for the Cougars over Portland’s Emily Gould and Maja Mladenovic. Portland claimed the doubles point when Lucia Butkovska and Jelena Lazarevic defeated BYU’s Mayci Jones and Toby Miclat, 6-3.
BYU (2-8, 1-1 WCC) failed to win the first three singles matches played. Jones dropped her match 2-6, 0-6 to Portland’s Butkovska, who is ranked No. 100 in the country for singles. Miclat lost to Dimintrova 5-7, 2-6 to give Portland the 3-0 lead.
Mladenovic sealed the match for the Pilots, defeating Poulsen 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Ware lost to Grigoryan in three sets, 6-2, 2-6, 0-1, and Beckman dropped her match as well. Nabieva put up the only points for the Cougars on the night, defeating Tori Troesch 6-2, 6-3.
The Cougars head to Boise next weekend for a doubleheader against Boise State and UNLV. Fans can click here to follow the action live.