Owls Scoreless Against Cougars

BOISE -- For the second consecutive day the No. 17 BYU women's tennis team (16-4, 3-0) blanked its opponent in the Barbara Chandler Classic, hosted by Boise State, as it shut out Rice in a 7-0 finish today.

"We struggled at the beginning and got down in doubles," head coach Craig Manning said. "But, the girls battled back, from being down, and won every match. Today was a great team effort."

The Cougars won all three doubles matches, taking the doubles point from Rice. Following the doubles matches, BYU had to fight to win all six singles spots.

No. 1 seed Barbora Zahnova got the Cougars started off well in singles as she toppled Rice's top seed Blair Disesa 6-1, 6-2. Following Zahnova, freshman Sofia Holden pushed past Lauren Archer in the third set tiebreaker to win 7-5, 4-6, 10-7.

Winning equally tough three-set matches for the Cougars were Lauren Jones, Rebecca Pike and Hadley Macfarlane. Sophomore Olga Boulytcheva finished her opponent in two sets 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 4 spot to help the Cougars seal the deal.

The Cougars will return home next week to face conference foes New Mexico on April 9th and Air Force the following day.

BYU 7, Rice 0 
Doubles: 
1. Zahnova/Holden (BYU) def. Disesa/Archer (Rice)	         8-2 
2. MacFarlane/Boulytcheva (BYU)def. Chong/Chao (Rice) 	         9-8 
3. Pike/Oswald (BYU) def. Goodrich/Fisher (Rice)		8-5 
Singles: 
1. Barbora Zahnova (BYU) def. Blair Disesa (Rice)		 6-1 6-2 
2. Sofia Holden (BYU) def. Lauren Archer (Rice)		 7-5 4-6 10-7 
3. Lauren Jones (BYU) def. Tracie Chong (Rice)		 7-6 5-7 6-4 
4. Olga Boulytcheva (BYU) def. Karen Chao (Rice)		 6-4 6-3 
5. Rebecca Pike (BYU) def. Yasmin Fisher (Rice)		 5-7 7-5 10-3 
6. Hadley MacFarlane (BYU) def. Annie Goodrich (Rice)	          2-6 6-3 6-1