Nearly Perfect in Las Vegas

LAS -- The No. 14 BYU women's tennis team (13-4,1-0) nearly blanked 67th-ranked San Diego State (4-9, 0-1) in a 6-1 decision.

BYU jumped out to an early lead by clinching the doubles point with wins from Barbora Zahnova and Sofia Holden on court No. 1 and Rebecca Pike and Olga Boulytcheva on No. 3. In the Zahnova/Holden match, BYU was down 5-2 and came back to post an 8-6 win over 25th-ranked Katalina Romero and Indra Erichsen.

Although the Cougars lost at the No. 2 doubles spot, the match was highlighted by the return of Senior Lu Oswald, who has suffered form back pains since January.

"It was great having Lu back in the line up today," head coach Craig Manning said. "Even though we struggled for the win at the No. 2 doubles spot, she brought a great inspiration to the team just by being able to play."

BYU nearly swept the Aztecs in singles action winning on five of the six courts, only dropping one set the entire match. BYU saw wins from Zahnova, Holden, Lauren Jones, Pike and Hadley Macfarlane. The only lost singles match was by Olga Boulytcheva who fell in the tiebreaker of the third set to Alesya Vidov 6-7, 6-1 (12-10).

The Cougars will be back in action tomorrow morning as they face No. 46 UNLV in Las Vegas for their second conference match. The match will begin at 10 a.m. PST.

BYU 6, SDSU 1
Doubles:
Zahnova/Holden (BYU) def. Romero/Erichsen (SDSU) 		8-6
Vidov/Hauerlandova (SDSU) def. Macfarlane/Oswald (BYU) 	8-4
Pike/Boulytehcva (BYU) def. Graf/Sanson (SDSU) 		8-0
Singles:
Barbora Zahnova (BYU) def. Dita Hauerlandova (SDSU) 		6-1, 6-1
Sofia Holden (BYU) def. Katalina Romero (SDSU) 		6-3, 7-5
Lauren Jones (BYU) def. Indra Erichsen (SDSU) 		7-6, 6-3
Alesya Vidov (SDSU) def. Olga Boulytcheva (BYU) 		6-7, 6-1 (12-10)
Rebecca Pike (BYU) def. Patricia Graf (SDSU) 			6-3, 6-2
Hadley Macfarlane (BYU) def. Sarah Sanson (SDSU) 		6-4, 6-3

PROVO -- As conference action begins this week, the No. 14 BYU women's tennis team (12-4) heads to Las Vegas to take on No. 68 San Diego State on Friday and No. 51 UNLV on Saturday at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.

The Cougars are coming off a huge win over No. 13 Clemson in Provo on March 16th. The Cougars were down 3-0 midway through the match, but Clemson could not close the deal as BYU powered back to overrun the Tigers 4-3.

BYU has other big road wins over top-ranked teams from USC and William and Mary. With conference play up and coming, the Cougars are ready to stay closer to home and compete with more familiar teams.

Friday's match-up against San Diego State will give the Cougars a chance to redeem their two losses to the Aztecs last season. BYU fell to the Aztecs in Provo during regular season and dropped its second loss in the final round of the Mountain West Conference Championships in San Diego. BYU placed second overall in the tournament.

The 6-7 Lady Rebels of UNLV bring a six-game winning streak to Saturday's match-up as they recently posted an upset over No. 42 Ohio State. In their last two meetings the Cougars beat the Rebels 6-1 and 4-2 respectively.

Both matches begin at 10 a.m. PST.