PROVO, Utah (Feb. 16, 20070 -- The road trip to Kansas proved to be a good one for the No. 34 BYU women's tennis team who improves to 4-4 on the season after the Cougars beat Kansas 4-3 on Friday and nearly swept No. 63 Kansas State 6-1 on Saturday.

"I thought we were really focused today and yesterday," BYU head coach Craig Manning said. "We executed well and we are getting better every day. We are really starting to get things going now."

BYU started off in familiar fashion by winning the doubles point despite a rare loss from No. 2 Lauren Jones and Sofia Holden. In Friday's match, junior Jenny Miccoli dislocated her dominant left shoulder, yet still completed and won her doubles match at the No. 1 position with junior Anastasia Surkova. Not only did she finish that match, but she played again on Saturday and won her doubles match again, playing through terrible pain.

The singles competition was rather lopsided in BYU's favor as well as the Cougars won five of the six matches. Junior Dolly Chang won her fourth match in a row at No. 6 in a three set tiebreak, though the Cougars had already clinched the team victory with wins from the first three singles positions, all in straight sets.

Another tough road trip awaits the surging Cougars as they face No. 52 Arkansas on Friday and No. 51 Texas Tech on Saturday. The next home action for the Cougars will be the following weekend, March 2 and 3 against No. 53 Colorado and No. 65 Boise State, respectively.

Match Results

Kansas State vs. BYU

Ahearn Field House

Manhattan, Kan. -- 2.17.07

BYU 6, KSU 1

Doubles

1. Surkova/Jennifer Miccoli (BYU) def. Klimova/Kudlackova (KSU), 8-5

2. Da Valle/Viviana Yrureta (KSU) def. Jones/Holden (BYU), 8-4

3. Doerr/Chang (BYU) def. Perevoshchikova/Tamar Kvaratskhelia (KSU), 8-5

Order of Completion: 1, 3, 2

Singles

1. Lauren Jones (BYU) def. Viviana Yrureta (KSU), 6-3, 6-2

2. Anastasia Surkova (BYU) def. Maria Perevoshchikova (KSU), 6-1, 6-1

3. Kristina Doerr (BYU) def. Katerina Kudlackova (KSU), 6-3, 6-4

4. Fernanda Da Valle (KSU) def. Sofia Holden (BYU), 7-6(7-3), 6-2

5. Chie Hayasaka (BYU) def. Olga Klimova (KSU), 6-2, 6-0

6. Dolly Chang (BYU) def. Natasha Vieira (KSU), 0-6, 6-1, 10-5

Order of Completion: 2, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6

PROVO -- The No. 34 BYU women's tennis team will go on the road to face Kansas and No. 63 Kansas state this Friday and Saturday, respectively, in its first matches since the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships.

"The Indoor Championships were really productive for us," BYU head coach Craig Manning said. "We have worked hard and I fell like we started playing very well at the end of the tournament. We're excited to see how things work out for us now that they are over."

Kansas has a record of 1-6 this year and is looking to end its four game skid at home against the Cougars. The Jayhawks have played five of their seven matches this year at home and have a record of 1-4 on their own courts.

No. 63 Kansas State will be the sixth team the Cougars have played this year that is ranked in the Top 75. BYU has a record of 1-4 against ranked teams with three of those losses coming at the National Indoor Championships against No. 10 Baylor, No.12 Virginia Commonwealth and No. 14 Clemson.

Next week the Cougars will travel to No. 52 Arkansas and No. 51 Texas Tech before returning home to face No. 53 Colorado and No. 65 Boise State. In total, the Cougars will have faced 17 ranked teams before season's end with four of those teams coming in conference play (No. 16 TCU, No. 38 UNM, No. 39 UNLV, No. 49 SDSU).