After opening the week with a conference win over the Portland, the BYU women's tennis team fell to San Francisco 4–2 on Friday and lost against Santa Clara 5–2 on Saturday.
Sophomore Meghan Sheehan-Dizon returns the ball during BYU's match against Utah State on Jan. 26. BYU lost to San Francisco and Santa Clara this past weekend. (Photo by Elliott Miller)
The Cougars (7–7, 1–2 WCC) are now just 2–6 in their last eight matches and 2–6 on the road this season.
'We fought hard and we were right there in it,' BYU coach Lauren Jones-Spencer said. 'It was disappointing to lose.'
BYU opened up its weekend play against San Francisco (8–5, 1–2 WCC) at Golden Gate Park on Friday.
San Francisco began the match with a quick 8–3 victory over BYU's junior Desiree Tran and senior Aubrey Paul. The Dons quickly followed up with another victory, this time 8–6 over freshman Nicolette Tran and sophomore Meghan Sheehan-Dizon to pick up the doubles point. The match on court two did not finish because the point had already been decided.
The Dons carried that momentum into singles play winning three of the five matches that finished.
The bright spot for the Cougars was the play of Nicolette Tran and Paul. The two have been solid all season and they picked up BYU's two points. Nicolette Tran defeated the USF's Marina Nikolic 6–2, 6–4, and Paul beat Yurie Hashiguchi 6–2, 6–4.
On Saturday, the Cougars took a short trip to the Degheri Tennis Center in Santa Clara for their match against the Santa Clara Broncos (7–5, 2–0 WCC).
This time in doubles Paul and Desiree Tran picked up a win for the Cougars, 8–7, but it wasn't enough as Santa Clara won on court one, 8–6 and on court two, 8–3.
The Broncos were dominant in singles play too, winning four of the six matches to secure the match win and continue their undefeated start to the WCC.
Again Paul was solid for BYU in her 7–6, 6–3 win against Santa Clara's Stephanie Skara. Sheehan-Dizon picked up the other point for BYU in her three-set victory over Kelly Lamble, 2–6, 6–4, 10–8.
BYU will be on the road again on Friday against San Diego and Saturday against Saint Mary's.