Cougars Survive First Day at National Team Indoors

PROVO -- The No. 37 BYU women's tennis team is currently participating in the 2007 USTA/ITA National Women's Team Indoor Championships at the University of Wisconsin's A.C. Nielsen Tennis Stadium. Since 1988 this has been the only collegiate championship to annually crown a national indoor champion. Top-ranked and three-time defending champion Stanford is among the 16 teams participating in Madison. Fourteen of this week's participants are ranked inside the top 17 in the Fila Collegiate Tennis Rankings.

In Thursday's first round match, BYU lost to No. 10 Baylor 5-2 with wins from Lauren Jones and Chie Hayasaka, both in straight sets. Despite the loss, BYU head coach Craig Manning was still upbeat about his team's chances.

"There were some really good things out there today," Manning said. "Lauren played really well as did Chie. Right now no one has a bad attitude, we're just trying to get our games back a little. These guys are really good that we're playing against, but we are confident that we can still play with them."

The seeded teams include No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Miami (Fla.), No. 4 Georgia Tech, No. 5 North Carolina, No. 6 Northwestern, No. 7 Baylor and No. 8 California. The other teams participating in the tournament are Vanderbilt, Virginia Commonwealth, Pepperdine, TCU, UCLA, Wisconsin, Clemson and BYU.

With the loss, the team falls to 2-2 on the season. The Cougars will face No. 18 Clemson on Friday in the backdraw of the tournament. Clemson lost to Notre Dame 5-2 Thursday and is now 2-1 on the season.

Match Results

Doubles

1. Broosova/Zrustova Surkova/Miccoli Baylor 8-3

2. Zok/Chmelarova Jones/Holden Baylor 8-7(3)

3. Zemenova/Bielikova Hayasaka /Chang Baylor 8-2

Singles

1. Zuzana Zemenova (21) Anastasia Surkova Baylor 6-1, 6-3

2. Jessica Zok (38) Lauren Jones BYU 7-5, 7-5

3. Lenka Broosova (37) Kristina Doerr Baylor 6-0, 6-0

4. Klara Zrustova Sofia Holden Baylor 6-2, 6-2

5. Zuzna Chmelarova Chie Hayasaka BYU 6-0, 6-3

6. Iva Mihaylova Dolly Chang Baylor 6-2, 6-4

Order of finish (singles):4, 6, 2, 1, 3, 5,