PROVO, Utah (March 18, 2002) ? The No. 44 BYU women?s tennis team came very close to pulling off an upset of No. 29 TCU, but fell short and lost the match, 4-1. The Cougars (6-9, 1-0) got a boost from freshman Rebecca Pike, who played in her first match as a Cougar, but it wasn?t quite enough.
Pike, a native of Queensland, Australia, jumped right in and played No. 1 singles. Pike played hard, but could not keep up with Katrin Gaber of TCU and lost the match 6-2, 6-3. With Pike playing though, the Cougars gained an advantage in the lower positions as each player moved down.
Lu Oswald came up with BYU?s lone point in the match at No. 3 singles. Oswald, who has won six of her last seven matches, knocked off Saber Pierce, 6-1, 6-1. Both Dominique Reynolds and Liza Khoudoiarova were winning their matches at No. 5 and No. 6 when the match was decided at No. 4 singles. Brooke Beverley lost a tough three-set match to Rosa Perez, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4. With the match already decided, the No. 5 and No. 6 matches did not finish.
In doubles, Beverly and Reynolds teamed up to win at No. 1 doubles, 8-5. The Cougars could not pull off the wins at the other two spots though, and TCU took the doubles point.
The Cougars will resume Mountain West Conference play this weekend, starting with a Friday match against UNLV. BYU will stay in Las Vegas and play against San Diego State Saturday. BYU has only played one conference match, defeating Air Force 6-1 in its first dual match of the season.
FINAL RESULTSDOUBLES
No. 1 Beverley/Reynolds (BYU) def. Aburto/Perez (TCU) 8-5
No. 2 Pierce/Weirich (TCU) def. Ferrell/Oswald (BYU) 8-5
No. 3 Gaber/Mancinas (TCU) def. Khoudoiarova/Pike (BYU) 8-4
TCU WINS DOUBLES POINT
SINGLES
No. 1 Katrin Gaber (TCU) def. Rebecca Pike (BYU) 6-2, 6-3
No. 2 Paty Aburto (TCU) def. Lindsay Ferrell 6-4, 6-0
No. 3 Lu Oswald (BYU) def. Saber Pierce (TCU) 6-1, 6-1
No. 4 Rosa Perez (TCU) def. Brooke Beverley (BYU) 4-6, 7-6, 6-4
No. 5 Dominique Reynolds (BYU) vs. Leoni Weirich (TCU) 6-2, DNF
No. 6 Liza Khoudoiarova (BYU) vs. Karla Mancinas (TCU) 6-3, DNF
TCU WINS MATCH 4-1
With the match already decided, No. 5 and No. 6 singles positions did not finish their matches.
