By DAVID FUHRIMAN
On a weekend when treats and prizes are the norm, the BYU women’s tennis team came home from Nebraska with a little more than your average trick-or-treater. The Lady Cougars assured themselves of at least two champions from their Halloween weekend tournament, and four players qualified for national competition on Saturday.
The 17th- ranked women’s team enjoyed a fruitful weekend in Omaha, Neb., as two singles players were named co-champions of the Rolex Regional Championships, and a BYU doubles team is in the finals of the tournament as well. Adrien Jenkins and Holly Parkinson were named the co-champions of the singles bracket of the tournament. With the victory, they also qualified to play in the national women’s tennis championships next February.
“We had a good day of tennis today, with some very strong performances in our singles rounds,” said head coach Clark Barton. “Adrien, Holly and Eline (Chiew) all played extremely well.”
Chiew and Jenkins advanced to the finals of the doubles competition, which will be held on Monday because the team does not participate in tournaments on Sunday. To advance to the finals, Chiew and Jenkins beat a Kansas team 8-6, and then a Kansas State team 8-6 in a semifinal match.
Jenkins, a senior from Ogden, pulled double-duty not only playing and winning two doubles matches on Saturday, but also won two singles matches to advance to the finals against Parkinson, a freshman from Houston, Texas. Jenkins beat a Boise State player and a Kansas player by the same scores, 7-5, 6-1.
Parkinson took a different route to the finals, beating two University of Utah players in the quarterfinals and semifinals, 6-4, 6-3 and 6-0, 6-1, respectively.
Chiew lost her quarterfinal match in three sets to a Kansas player, but her doubles partner Jenkins redeemed the team by beating that same Kansas player, Christie Sim, to advance to the finals.
The Rolex Region VII Chamionship is the fourth tournament of the year for BYU, and concludes the fall tournament schedule for the Cougars. After a busy October this was BYU’s last tournament of the year, as the team takes its #17 ranking into dual competition in January, when it travels to Laie, Hawaii to compete against Iowa, Hawaii and 16th-ranked Notre Dame Jan. 2-9.
