By Scott Armstrong
The No. 35 BYU women''s tennis team added two more wins to their spotless conference record with victories over No. 69 New Mexico and No. 32 TCU in Salt Lake City on Friday and Saturday.
Now 6-0 against Mountain West Conference opponents, the Cougars took sole possession of first place in the league, with only two conference matches left to play.
The action started Friday, as BYU took the courts against the Lobos and promptly jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a sweep of all three doubles matches.
Among the winners were No. 47 Anastasia Surkova and Jenny Miccoli, who teamed to win their 13th match in a row on court one.
In singles, Surkova won again on court one, 6-2, 6-2, for her seventh straight victory.
Seniors Lauren Jones and Sofia Holden also prolonged their personal winning streaks to eight and six matches, respectively.
Kristina Doerr and Dolly Chang both chipped in singles wins for the Cougars as well, to push BYU''s point total to six, compared to only a single point for New Mexico.
Saturday, BYU faced TCU, the only other team with an undefeated MWC record.
The battle of unbeatens did not go the Cougars'' way in the beginning. Only doubles partners Doerr and Holden were able to win their match.
'The competition was tough,' BYU coach Craig Mannig said. 'But our level of performance wasn''t up to par where it usually is at No. 1 and 2 doubles.'
Down 1-0 entering singles play, BYU needed four wins in six matches to secure the win, which is exactly what they got.
Once again, Surkova posted a straight set win, 6-1, 6-3, on court one. Holden and Chang also earned straight-set victories of their own.
TCU registered wins on courts three and four to push their point total to three, just one short of the overall win, but the Horned Frogs were unable to score again.
After losing the first set 6-1, Jones put the finishing touches on the BYU victory with a hard-fought comeback win on court two, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.
'We had a really good focus today. Our doubles play wasn''t great, but our singles play was,' Manning said.