BYU women’s tennis played two back-to-back home matches March 15-16, defeating the University of Portland on Friday and losing to the University of Utah on Saturday.
BYU won its first West Coast Conference match of the season, beating Portland with a final score of 4-1. None of the three singles matches won by BYU made it into the third set.
Polina Malykh and Madeline Almeida picked up their sixth season victory as a doubles team, winning 6-2. The matchup against the Pilots ended with Malykh winning her ninth season singles match and Almeida picking up her sixth. The doubles team of Malykh and Almeida is 6-3 this season.
Taylah Beckman and Samantha Smith also picked up a decisive win over Portland in a 6-3 victory. The duo won their seventh doubles game of the season to close out doubles against Portland. Smith’s singles game against Portland’s Anna Oberg was on track for another decisive victory for the Cougars but did not finish.
Another match that did not finish was the doubles match played by Katie Cusick and Anastasia Abramyan. The doubles team was up 5-4. Cusick picked a victory in singles over Portland’s Emily Soares. The win would be Cusick’s fourth of the season.
Head coach Holly Parkinson Hasler praised her team’s victorious efforts in their first conference game of the season.
“The girls took care of business today,” she said. “We are improving with growth mindsets, and we are getting better every day.”
Friday marked the team’s seventh win of the season.
Saturday’s game against Utah did not go as smoothly for BYU. While the Cougars took home doubles, the Utes came back in singles to defeat them in a close 4-3 final score.
The loss against Utah was the BYU women’s team’s first loss at home this season.
With Abramyan and Cusick winning the first doubles match and Malykh and Almeida dropping the second, Beckman and Smith closed out doubles for the Cougars with a close 7-5 victory over Utah’s Emily Dush and Lindsay Hung. Beckman and Smith improved their season’s doubles record to 8-2.
Utah opened strong in singles with Madison Tattini and Lindsay Hung claiming the first two victories over Cusick and Almeida, respectively.
Abramyan and Malykh halted Utah’s momentum with wins of their own in the third sets of their matches. Abramyan picked up her fourth singles win of the season while Malykh secured her tenth. Malykh’s singles victory extended her current winning streak to nine.
Unfortunately for BYU, Utah secured the final two games of the Saturday matchup. This was the Cougars’ fifth loss of the season. BYU is now set to take on WCC foe Gonzaga on the outdoor tennis courts in Provo March 22.
