PROVO -- The No. 60 BYU women's tennis team (2-3) continues its home stand this Monday when the No. 53 Cowgirls of Oklahoma State (3-0) come to Provo. The match will begin at 11 a.m. and will be played at the BYU indoor tennis courts.
The Cougars have won the last three home matches in an impressive fashion. They beat Utah State, Weber State and Utah while only dropping one match. But BYU head coach Craig Manning knows that OSU will come ready to play.
"They are really good and they usually play us really tough," Manning said. "The national ranking they have right now doesn't really reflect how good they really are."
OSU is 3-0 on the year with big wins over Rice University and Southwest Missouri State. The Cowgirls are lead by No. 74 Linda Faltynkova who is 3-0 on the season. She is nursing an injured toe but is expected to play at the No. 1 spot. Faltynkova also teams up with Kararzyna Kolodynska as the No. 6 doubles team in the nation.
The Cougars will be looking to sophomores Nicole Schneider and Rebecca Pike and freshman Hadley MacFarlane to lift them over the Cowgirls. All three have yet to lose a match in singles or doubles this season. With senior Lu Oswald out of the lineup with a shoulder injury, seniors Dominique Reynolds and Leeza Klempner and freshman Olga Boulytcheva have stepped up and come up with some big wins for the Cougars.
"I'm really looking forward to this match," Manning said. "We always have great matches with them so it would be a big one for us to win. I think we will have a slight advantage because we're playing at home."
After the match with OSU, the Cougars will be at it again when they play No. 33 Wisconsin at home on Friday, Feb. 21 at 11 a.m.