BYU Clinches Win Over Rival Utah

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PROVO -- The No. 58 BYU women’s tennis team closed out home play with a 5-2 win over No. 57 Utah on Saturday. With the win the Cougars improve to 12-7 on the season and 5-1 against Mountain West Conference opponents.

Following the match BYU was presented with the women’s tennis Deseret First Duel Trophy.

“There’s always added tension when we’re playing Utah,” BYU coach Craig Manning said. “But the players handled it well and did a great job.”

Utah took the first doubles match, 8-1, on court three, but BYU responded with a decisive 8-4 win on court one. The all-important doubles point came down to Elle Carney and Megan Price at the No. 2 position. The match went back-and-forth until the Australian duo pulled away to clinch the 8-6 victory and the point.

“We performed well in doubles,” Manning said. “One and two doubles were outstanding.”

The Cougars continued to show their strength with solid performances by McCall Jones and Kristina Doerr at the No. 1 and No. 2 position respectively. The two handily defeated their Ute opponents to bring BYU’s lead to 3-0.

Chie Hayasaka won in three sets to clinch the match for BYU. At the same time, Utah’s Evgenia Kryuchkova earned the first point for the Utes after winning in straight sets on court five. Leigh Walsh notched another victory for Utah at the No. 3 position. Carney wrapped things up for BYU with a third-set tiebreak win to finish the match 5-2.

“We’re really starting to play well at the most important time of the season,” Manning said.

BYU resumes conference play next week against No. 42 San Diego State and No. 48 UNLV in Las Vegas.

Match Results
No. 58 BYU-5 
No. 57 Utah-2 
Doubles
1. Doerr/Jones (BYU) def. Maughan/Monson (UTAH) 8-4
2. Carney/Price (BYU) def. Johnson/Putilina (UTAH) 8-6
3. Kryuchkova/Walsh (UTAH) def. Ezhova/Nedakovic (BYU) 8-1
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles
1. M. Jones (BYU) def. A. Putilina (UTAH) 6-1, 6-2
2. K. Doerr (BYU) def. E. Monson (UTAH) 6-2, 6-2
3. L. Walsh (UTAH) def. M. Price (BYU) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
4. C. Hayasaka (BYU) def. L. Johnson (UTAH) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
5. E. Kryuchkova (UTAH) def. R. Nedakovic (BYU) 6-1, 6-3
6. E. Carney (BYU) def. A. Maughan (UTAH)4-6, 6-4, 10-0
Order of finish: 1, 2, 4, 5, 3, 6