BYU women’s tennis narrowly defeated the Boise State Broncos, 4-3, on Friday at the Boas Indoor Tennis Center.
At No. 2 doubles, Kendall Kovick and YuYun Chen defeated Carla Grignac and Allison Isaacs, 6-2, while freshmen Bella Lewis and Karina Mohamed won at No. 3, 6-3. Gracie Levelston and Sue Yan Tan were also ahead at No. 1 doubles, 4-3, when BYU clinched the doubles point to take a 1-0 match lead.
The Cougars and the Broncos split singles 3-3, making the doubles point decisive for BYU’s overall win.
At No. 5 singles, Paula Schaefer’s 6-2, 6-4 win over Karina Mohamed evened the match, 1-1. At No. 3, Sue Yan Tan battled through a tight first set, but Masa Viriant edged her in a tiebreak, 7-6 (6). Viriant also took the second set, 6-0, to give Boise State a 2-1 lead.
BYU rebounded with wins at courts one and six to retake the lead, 3-2. At No. 1 singles, Gracie Levelston defeated Boise State’s Zdena Safarova, 6-3, 6-3. At No. 6, Bella Lewis defeated Carla Grignac, the current Mountain West Player and Freshman of the Week, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
After Boise State tied the match 3-3 with a win at No. 4 singles, all eyes turned to court two. BYU’s Kendall Kovick and Boise State’s Tereza Polakova traded sets, 6-4, 5-7. Kovick took the third set, 6-4, to clinch the final singles point.
With the win, the Cougars improved to 4-1 on the season, while the Broncos fell to 1-2. BYU will face Idaho State on Saturday at Reed Gym.