WEST LAFAYETTE -- Playing on the road for the fifth straight time, the No. 51 BYU women's tennis team edged out Purdue 4-3 for its first road win of the season. Strong singles play led BYU (2-4, 1-0) to the important win in the Cougars' first match of a four-match road trip.
BYU dug itself an early hole after the doubles matches, narrowly losing the point to the Boilermakers. Lu Oswald and Nicole Schneider teamed up to win the match at the No. 3 spot, but BYU was unable to win at the other two positions. Brooke Beverley and Dominique Reynolds barely lost at the No. 1 spot, falling to the team of Haynor/Wright 9-8.
The Cougars made up the ground in singles play, where BYU swept the No. 2 through No. 5 spots. Beverley lost at the No. 1 position in straight sets, but the other five single matches went to three sets with the Cougars taking four of them. Oswald and Reynolds each lost the first set in their matches, but rallied to win at the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively. Lindsay Ferrell won at No. 2 and Elizaveta Khoudoiarova won a hard-fought match at No. 5.
BYU will get no break and will travel to No. 18 Notre Dame to take on the Fighting Irish on Monday. The Cougars will also play No. 8 Tennessee and No. 36 Mississippi this week.
FINAL RESULTS
DOUBLES
No. 1 Haynor/Wright (PU) def. Beverley/Reynolds (BYU) 9-8
No. 2 Fick/Woods (PU) def. Ferrell/Khoudoiarova (BYU) 8-3
No. 3 Oswald/Schneider (BYU) def. Iqbal/Zuccarini (PU) 8-6
SINGLES
No. 1 Melissa Iqbal (PU) def. Brooke Beverley (BYU) 6-1, 6-0
No. 2 Lindsay Ferrell (BYU) def. Gretchen Haynor (PU) 6-3, 1-6, 6-4
No. 3 Lu Oswald (BYU) def. Melissa Woods (PU) 2-6, 6-3, 6-1
No. 4 Dominique Reynolds (BYU) def. Shawna Zuccarini (PU) 3-6, 7-6, 7-5
No. 5 Elizaveta Khoudoiarova (BYU) def. Lyndsey Fick (PU) 6-2, 2-6, 6-3
No. 6 Amy Walgenbach (PU) def. Nicole Schneider (BYU) 6-2, 4-6, 7-5
PROVO -- The No. 51 BYU women's tennis team will travel back to the Midwest and the South for another grueling road trip. The Cougars (1-4, 1-0) start the trip with a match at No. 61 Purdue (1-3) Saturday afternoon. It will not get any easier as BYU will play No. 18 Notre Dame, No. 8 Tennessee and No. 36 Mississippi all within the week.
"I just want the team to play really aggressive," BYU head coach Craig Manning said. "We played real well the first road trip, but we played a little tentative on the second one. We've been real aggressive in practice and I just want that to carry over into the matches this week."
Manning plans to mix up the doubles teams this week to improve BYU's chances of winning the doubles point. Brooke Beverley will team with Dominique Reynolds at the No. 1 spot, Lindsay Ferrell and Elizaveta Khoudoiarova will compete at No. 2 and Lu Oswald and Nicole Schneider will take over at the No. 3 spot. Singles positions will most likely stay the same, but the Cougars are going to need to be hitting on all cylinders to win these matches on the road.
"We're pretty much healthy finally so I'm hoping we can get things going," Manning said. "Tennessee and Notre Dame are both great teams so we'll have to play well.
The Cougars have been competitive on the previous two road trips, but have yet to win on the road this season. BYU has not won a match since its opening match of the season at home against Air Force. The Cougars hit the road right after that match and have played four Top-50 opponents, including No. 1 Georgia. Following this road trip, with matches Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the Cougars will come back home for a Mar. 1 match with Kansas. That match begins a seven-match homestand for the Cougars.
