Albuquerque, N.M. (April 23, 2009) –The BYU men’s and women’s tennis teams ended the season Thursday after dropping their respective quarterfinal matches at the Mountain West Conference Tournament in New Mexico.

The women’s team fell 4-3 to New Mexico while the men’s team lost 4-0 to San Diego State.

“We got tight and beat ourselves,” BYU women’s coach Craig Manning said. “But New Mexico played well and did what was needed to put us in that position.”

BYU’s No. 63 women’s squad started out strong, capturing the doubles point after wins by Kristina Doerr and McCall Jones on court one and Liza Ezhova and Romina Nedakovic on court three.

In singles play, Megan Price increased the Cougars’ lead with a straight-set win at the No. 4 position. The Lobos struck back with a victory on court two. Liza Ezhova put BYU within one point of the win after defeating her New Mexico opponent.

“We couldn’t quite close it out,” Manning said. “We just need a little more experience.”

The Lobos took the next two matches to tie the score at three-all. A place in the semifinal round came down to Romina Nedakovic on court six. The freshman dropped the first set but fought back to win the second before eventually falling to give New Mexico the 4-3 victory and a semifinal match against top-seeded UNLV Friday.

On the men’s side, there was trouble from the beginning for the Cougars. San Diego State won the first two doubles matches to claim the point and the advantage going into singles play.

“Across the board, we didn’t get a good start in doubles,” BYU men’s coach Brad Pearce said. “In many respects, that carried over to singles.”

The Aztecs never looked back, recording wins on courts one, five and two to secure the victory. SDSU will face first-seeded TCU Friday in the semifinal round.

“Our guys were a little tentative,” Pearce said. “San Diego State seemed more sure of themselves with the altitude change after having played New Mexico Tuesday.”

Match Results
 Women 
BYU-3
New Mexico-4
Doubles 
1. McCall Jones/Kristina Doerr (BYU) def. Ola Abou-Zerky/Emma Hayman (NM) 8-5
2. Ashley Bonner/A. Villanueva-Forte (NM) def. Elle Carney/Megan Price (BYU) 8-5
3. Romina Nedakovic/Elizaveta Ezhova (BYU) def. Maria Sotirchos/Victoria Tessmar (NM) 8-6
Order of finish: 1,2,3
Singles
1. Ola Abou-Zerky (NM) def. #119 McCall Jones (BYU) 7-6 (7-3), 6-2
2. Mackenzie White (NM) def. Kristina Doerr (BYU) 6-3, 6-4
3. Emma Hayman (NM) def. Chie Haysaka (BYU) 6-0, 3-6, 7-5
4. Megan Price (BYU) def. Ashley Bonner (NM) 6-2, 6-2
5. Liza Ezhova (BYU) def. A. Villanueva-Forte (NM) 6-2, 6-3
6. Maria Sotirchos (NM) def. Romina Nedakovic (BYU) 6-1, 2-6, 6-3
Order of finish: 4,2,5,3,1,6
Men
BYU-0
San Diego State-4
Doubles 
1. Achim Ceban/Juan Gomez (SDSU) def. Thomas Shubert/Daniel Hwang (BYU) 8-5
2. Bartosz Golas/T. Schulz van Endert (SDSU) def. Georgy Batrakov/A.J. Young (BYU) 8-3
3. Giovanni Vaglietti/Andre Feliz (SDSU) vs. Cassidy Mears/Evan Urbina (BYU) 6-5, unfinished
Order of finish: 2,1
Singles 
1. #125 Achim Ceban (SDSU) def. Evan Urbina (BYU) 6-2, 6-2
2. Juan Gomez (SDSU) def. Roman Warias (BYU) 7-6 (7-4), 6-0
3. #122 Bartosz Golas (SDSU) vs. Thomas Shubert (BYU) 3-6, 6-5, unfinished
4. Giovanni Vaglietti (SDSU) vs. Cassidy Mears (BYU) 7-5, 3-4, unfinished
5. T. Schulz van Endert (SDSU) def. Georgy Batrakov (BYU) 6-3, 6-4
6. Andre Feliz (SDSU) vs. Daniel Hwang (BYU) 3-6, 5-4, unfinished
Order of finish: 1,5,2

PROVO -- The BYU women’s tennis team will travel to Albuquerque, N.M. this week to play in the Mountain West Conference Tournament at the Jerry Cline Tennis Center. The Cougars will face New Mexico Thursday to open the tournament.

“We’re just going to try to do things we did well last time and improve in the areas we think we could do better in.” BYU coach Craig Manning said. “We match up well against New Mexico. It should be fun.”

A 5-3 record versus MWC opponents earned the No. 63 women’s team the No. 4 seed going into the championship. BYU will begin the tournament against fifth-seeded New Mexico. The Lobos fell 4-3 against the Cougars earlier this month.

Conference play began with four consecutive wins for BYU before the squad fell to reining champion TCU. The Cougars wrapped up the season with two losses, one to San Diego State and one to this year’s regular-season champion UNLV.

All matches will be played at the Jerry Cline Tennis Center. The opening round match for BYU begins Thursday at 2 p.m.

For live stats and results, click here.

2009 MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN’S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP PAIRINGS
 
Wednesday, April 22
10 a.m. MT                      Opening Round                             
No. 8 Wyoming vs. No. 9 Air Force
 
Thursday, April 23
10 a.m. MT                      Quarterfinal Match #1                 
No. 2 TCU vs. No. 7 Colorado State
10 a.m. MT                      Quarterfinal Match #2                 
No. 3 San Diego State vs. No. 6 Utah
2 p.m. MT                        Quarterfinal Match #3                 
No. 1 UNLV vs. Wyoming/Air Force Winner
2 p.m. MT                        Quarterfinal Match #4                 
No. 4 BYU vs. No. 5 New Mexico
 
Friday, April 24
10 a.m. CT                       Semifinal Match #1                      
TCU/CSU Winner vs. SDSU/Utah Winner
2 p.m. CT                         Semifinal Match #2                      
UNLV/WYO vs. AFA Winner vs. BYU/UNM Winner
 
Saturday, April 25
10 a.m. MT                      Championship Match