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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

PROVO -- Another weekend of tough conference play awaits the No. 64 BYU men’s tennis team as it travels to San Diego. The Cougars will compete against No. 38 San Diego State, Air Force and No. 41 New Mexico in their third consecutive three-match weekend.

“We’ve got to be ready to play and play well at every position, every single match,” BYU coach Brad Pearce said.

The team will begin play Thursday against San Diego State. The Aztecs have yet to play a Mountain West opponent after three of their conference matches were postponed because of weather.

SDSU is currently 12-8 on the season and coming off a 5-2 win over UC Santa Barbara. BYU earned the win in a 4-3 decision when the two teams met last season in Provo.

“San Diego State and New Mexico are both good teams that know how to win,” Pearce said.

BYU will then take on Air Force. The Falcons are 0-2 in conference, having lost to UNLV and New Mexico. AFA’s last result was a 6-1 loss to Montana State.

“You can never take Air Force lightly because they always compete well,” Pearce said.

New Mexico will challenge the Cougars Saturday to wrap up the trip. The Lobos are an impressive 15-3 on the season and 2-0 in conference play. They are coming off of a close 4-3 loss to Boise State. BYU fell 4-0 at home last year against UNM.

“The bottom line on this trip is that we’re capable of winning,” Pearce said. “Our guys are going to have to be more patient, points will be longer and they’ll have to work harder.”

All matches will be played at the Fairbanks Ranch Tennis Club. Thursday's match against SDSU starts at 2 p.m. PT. The other matches begin at 9 a.m. PT.