No. 55 Cougars fall to Utah State in thriller

PROVO, Utah – No. 55 BYU women’s tennis lost to Utah State in heart-breaking fashion Wednesday in a match that came down to the final matchup.

“We dug ourselves into too deep of a hole,” BYU head coach Lauren Jones-Spencer said. “Utah State played great today. There were times there where we could have gritted it out but they wanted it more than us today.”

The Aggies shocked the Cougars off the bat by taking the doubles point. Utah State got on the board first as the duo of McKenzie Davis and Maggie O’Meara outplayed Meghan Sheehan-Dizon and Erica Valimaki to a 6-1 victory. BYU evened the score quickly however as Nicolette Tran and Savannah Ware earned a 6-1 win of their own over Nini Guensler and Lexi Turley.

The doubles point then fell to No. 1 doubles. The Cougar duo of Mayci Jones and Toby Miclat, ranked as the No. 1 doubles team in the region, jumped out to a fast 4-2 lead over Meghan Lyall and Kallie Sperry, but Utah State rallied for a 6-4 victory and the doubles point.

“Today showed the importance of the doubles point,” Jones-Spencer said. “That proved very difficult to overcome.”

The Aggies got off to another quick start in singles as Davis, the No. 1 ranked single in the region, beat Jones 6-0, 6-3. Sheehan-Dizon put BYU on the board as she was next off the court after a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Turley. Utah State’s Guensler bounced right back with a 7-5, 7-6 straight-set win over Tran.

Needing to win the final three matches, the Cougars began to mount a comeback. Miclat battled back for an exciting 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 victory of Sperry to get it going. Ware followed suit by winning her matchup against Sabrina Demerath 6-3, 6-3. The team victory for the match fell in the final matchup of the day between BYU freshman Katie Fitt and Lyall at No. 6 singles. Fitt started quickly, winning the first set 6-2, but was unable to close it out in either the second or third sets. Lyall won 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.

The Cougars hit the road for a weekend matchup with the University of Denver on Saturday at 4 p.m. MST and will return home next Friday, February 6, to face Boise State at 12 p.m. Live stats and video will be available for the home match.