After losing to Utah State the previous day, the top ranked Santa Clara team topped BYU 4-3 in a close match on Tuesday in Provo.
No. 73 Santa Clara (8-5) started the match strong by taking the doubles point, winning on courts two and three, 8-5 and 8-4. Duo Desiree Tran and Megan Price won the Cougars lone doubles victory on court one, topping Katie Le and Jessica Agra 8-4.
The Cougars started out singles strong with senior and captain Megan Price getting off the court first in a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Agra. But Santa Clara quickly responded with wins over junior Aubrey Paul and freshman Lisa Waldron, both in straight sets.
“I had a couple things I really wanted to work on and I had a specific goal in both my doubles and singles [matches],” Price said. “I just kept focusing on that and staying in the present and cheering across the courts to help my teammates.”
Meghan Sheehan-Dizon kept BYU in the match defeating Kacie Wagner 7-5, 6-2. This is the freshman’s fifth consecutive win in singles play.
Le secured the match win for the Broncos in a 7-6, 6-4 decision over Tran. And Morgan Anderson put up the last Cougar point, winning in the third set.
“It was a tough loss,” Price said of the overall match. “It’s really hard losing at home to a team like Santa Clara.”
Assistant coach James Ludlow said the players can be hard on themselves and during matches he gets them to focus on what’s going right in the match, instead of what is going wrong.
“[I] pull them into positive energy instead of letting themselves slip into negative energy,” Ludlow said. “Then after matches we can go through and talk about good points, bad points and what’s going to work next match to improve and become better.”
Head coach Lauren Jones-Spencer said the team needs to be determined and play its game no matter what, and have the fight to win.
“I think it’s a matter of keeping momentum going and not changing our game,” Jones-Spencer said. “There are a few specific things we need to work on this week in practice. We’re not executing as well as we should.”
The Cougars play No. 33 St. Mary’s Friday at noon in their last home match of the season. Admission is free and pizza will be provided for fans.
