Domination. The utter and complete triumph over all opponents. The BYU women’s team did just that during the BYU Women’s Invitational tournament Sept. 21.
Their first inklings of their success started on the first day of the tournament, Sept. 19, when they secured seven out of the eight spots for the quarterfinals in singles and half the spots in the doubles semifinals.
Nicolette Tran, a sophomore, beat Southern Utah’s Veronika Rogova 6-1, 6-2, and Morgan Anderson, a junior, beat Silvia Zhelyazkova from Wyoming 6-4, 6-3. Desiree Tran, the only senior on the BYU team, advanced after beating Evgenia Marushko from Southern Utah with a strong finish of 6-1. 6-3.
Meghan Sheehan-Dizon, a junior, beat fellow teammate Toby Miclat, a freshmen, 6-3, 6-0 and Mackenna Maddox, a sophomore, won 6-2, 6-2 against Madeline Skaras from Southern Utah.
“I was happy with how we came out today in singles” Lauren Jones-Spencer, the BYU women’s tennis coach said.
BYU’s doubles teams of Jones and Sheehan-Dizon won 8-3. The Tran sisters, Nicollete and Desiree, won 8-0 and then won again against the number one seed team of Jonas and Popovici team with a 8-4 victory.
However, even with their major success the first day of the tournament,the Cougars came out even stronger on Sept. 20 by seizing the doubles finalists game and setting up an all BYU singles finalists match.
Jones and Sheehan-Dizon faced off against their teammates the Tran sisters for the final doubles match. Jones and Sheehan-Dizon came out on top with a 8-6 victory and secured the fourth title of BYU in this tournament in the last five years.
On Sept. 21, teammates Sheehan-Dizon and Savannah Ware, a freshmen, played against one another for the singles title. Sheehan-Dizon took the first set 6-1 and then won the match by with a 6-2 score the next set.
“It’s always tough playing a team mate, but it was cool that we had all BYU girls in the finals” Sheehan-Dizon said. “Wares was a tough opponent, she’s got solid drop shot and an all around game”.
Wares admits struggling with nerves due to it being her first final match here at BYU.
“I feel like I could have played better and given her a better match, but you know better luck next time” Wares said.
The Cougars are excited to keep their momentum up through their next tournament in the Cal Nike Invitational on Sep. 27-28.
“It gives a lot of confidence winning my first tournament of the season” Sheehan-Dizon said. “I didn’t do too well in the last fall tornament so I trained really hard during the summer to make sure that I had a better fall season this year.”
Coach Jones-Spencer is preparing the tennis team by getting them as much match play as possible. Tornament such as the Cal Nike Invitational helps prepare the team for bigger tournaments such as regionals which will happen later this fall.
