Cougars Fight to the End at National Indoors

PROVO -- In its last of three matches at the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships the No. 37 BYU women's tennis team lost to No. 12 Virginia Commonwealth University despite a quality performance, 4-2.

"We played tons better again today," BYU head coach Craig Manning said. "We've improved every day we were here and we played really well. Individually, Lauren Jones lost 4 and 4 and was only a couple points away from turning it around. Sofia Holden played great and Anastasia Surkova also played better today. We got good wins from Dolly Chang and Chie Hayasaka and Kristina Doerr was in her match before it was stopped. We even pulled out a doubles victory at the No. 2 spot which is a lot better than yesterday."

At the tournament, the Cougars also faced No. 10 Baylor and No. 18 Clemson, losing 5-2 in both matches. Despite the losses, Mannning was still very pleased with his team's effort and all-around play.

"The team is really stepping up," he said. "This week has been fantastic for us to really get things going for the rest of our schedule."

So far, the Cougars have faced four teams in the ranked in the top 50 this season with a record of 1-4 and are scheduled to play seven more by the end of the season, three in the Mountain West Conference. The next time the team will be in action is Feb. 16 and 17 at Kansas and Kansas State, respectively. The next home match for the team will be against No. 44 Colorado on March 2 at the BYU Indoor Tennis Courts.

Match Results

BYU women's tennis vs. Virgina Commonwealth

2/3/07

Doubles

1-Yuferova/Borisova (VCU) def. Surkova/Jenny Miccoli (BYU) 8-1

2- Jones/Holden (BYU) def. Petrashevitch/Uvarova (VCU) 8-6

3- Klokotzky/Konstantiova (VCU) def. Doerr/Chang (BYU) 8-5

Singles

1- Tatsiana Uvarova (VCU) def. Anastasia Surkova (BYU) 6-3, 6-2

2- Maria Klokotzky (VCU) def. Lauren Jones (BYU) 6-4, 6-4

3- Olga Borisova (VCU) 4, Kristina Doerr (BYU) 3 DNF

4- Viktoria Konstantinova (VCU) def. Sofia Holden (BYU) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2

5- Chie Hayasaka (BYU) def. Vera Petrashevitch (VCU) 6-1, 1-0 ret.

6- Dolly Chang (BYU) def. Lena Leonchuk (VCU) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2