by BYU Athletic Communications
The No. 22 BYU women’s tennis team won its third game in five days Monday, beating New Mexico State handily, 7-0. With the win, the Cougars jump to 11-4 while the Aggies drop to 9-5.
“Everyone is playing well again, and our confidence is very high,” BYU coach Craig Manning said of his team after the win.
In an effort to build team confidence even more, Manning made some adjustments to the doubles teams. It is the second time this season he has made changes, and once again the adjustments seem to have worked. BYU’s doubles team came out playing impressive tennis. The new team of Jenni Miccoli and Sofia Holden pulled ahead in their match, and encountered few obstacles on their way to an 8-3 victory.
On court three, Olga Boulytcheva and Lauren Jones, the one doubles team to remain as it was last week, shut out their opponents on their way to an 8-0 victory. Anastasia Sourkova and Dolly Chang had a tougher go but were able to fend off New Mexico State’s Isabelle Mignot and Edine van Beusekom and squeak out an 8-6 win.
Having clinched the doubles point, the Cougars kept the momentum going to quickly finish what they had started. Holden and Sourkova worked their way to 6-0, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-0 wins respectively, and Boukytcheva closed things out with a straight-set win over Mignot. The other three Cougars also won their matches in straight sets.
Manning said he is happy with the way his team has been performing, and the team is just making changes now to build more confidence going into conference play. The Cougars will have one more match to build that confidence; they face the No. 24 Oregon Ducks on Saturday at 11 a.m. on the BYU Indoor Tennis Courts. The Cougars open conference play March 24, 2006, against UNLV.
