PROVO -- Playing at home for the last time this season, along with celebrating Senior Day, the No. 47 BYU women's tennis team notched a 4-1 win over San Diego State on Saturday. With the win the Cougars improve to 10-8 on the season and 2-0 in Mountain West Conference play.

"We played really, really well today," said BYU head coach Craig Manning. "Our momentum is really starting to roll and we're building confidence. Nothing has changed since the beginning of the season; we're not doing anything different, but we're just trying to get better all the time."

The Cougars jumped out to an early lead as Elle Carney and Chie Hayasaka made quick work of Esther Cadua and Milana Yusupova in doubles (8-1). The No. 35 senior duo of Jennifer Miccoli and Anastasia Surkova clinched the doubles point for BYU with their 8-4 win on court one.

After being down 3-1, No. 60 Dolly Chang and Kristina Doerr came back to win six straight games en route to an 8-4 comeback victory, completing the doubles sweep for BYU.

As singles play began, Hayasaka defeated SDSU's Eliska Krausova 6-1, 6-0, putting the Cougars up 2-0. The win marked back-to-back straight-set wins for Hayasaka over the past two days.

"Chie[Hayasaka] has been playing great," said Manning. "She's on fire and has really fallen into place this weekend. Her performance has given the team a shot of energy."

No. 80 Doerr soon followed with her own straight-set win (6-4, 6-2) on court two. Chang dropped a hard-fought 6-3, 6-3 match to Cadua at the No. 3 position, making it a 3-1 match.

Playing at the top position for BYU, No. 86 Surkova found herself down 4-2 early in the first set. The senior fought back to win three consecutive games to win the first set, and eventually go on to win the match, 7-6, 6-4.

"It wasn't pretty, but it worked," said Surkova. "I tried to stay focused and positive, even though during the second set I felt pretty nervous."

Next week the Cougars will travel to Wyoming where they continue conference play against Air Force, Colorado State and Wyoming.

RESULTS
No. 47 BYU def. SDSU, 4-1
March 29, 2008
Doubles
1.  Miccoli/Surkova (BYU) def. Krausova/Nielsen (SDSU) 8-4
2.  Chang/Doerr (BYU) def. Kitts/Trunk (SDSU) 8-4
3.  Carney/Hayasaka (BYU) def. Cadua/ Yusupov (SDSU) 8-1
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles
1.  A. Surkova (BYU) def. H. Bagshaw (SDSU) 7-6, 6-4
2.  K. Doerr (BYU) def. J. Trunk (SDSU) 6-4, 6-2
3.  C. Hayasaka (BYU) def. E. Krausova (SDSU) 6-1, 6-0
4.  E. Cadua (SDSU) def. D. Chang (BYU) 6-3, 6-3
5.  E. Ezhova (BYU) vs. M. Yusupov (SDSU) DNF
6.  E. Carney (BYU) vs. S. Nielsen (SDSU) DNF
Order of finish: 3, 2, 4, 1

PROVO -- The No. 47 BYU women's tennis team will honor its three seniors, Anastasia Surkova, Jennifer Miccoi and Dolly Chang, this weekend as it opens Mountain West Conference play and competes for the last time in front of its home crowd.

No. 62 UNLV and San Diego State come to Provo to take on the Cougars (8-8) who are coming off a disappointing 0-2 record in California last weekend.

The Rebels dropped their third straight match last week after losing 4-3 to No. 25 Pepperdine. UNLV is led by No. 31 Elena Gantcheva, who is also ranked No. 59 with doubles partner Kristina Nedeltcheva. Last season, BYU defeated the Rebels in both of its meetings, including a 4-0 sweep to win the MWC championship.

San Diego improved to 7-7 on the season after a convincing win over Harvard on Tuesday. The Aztecs handed the Cougars their only conference loss of the 2007 season and BYU hopes to keep that from happening again with the help of their experienced seniors.

Currently the nation's No. 86-ranked singles player, Surkova has recorded a 75-25 singles record and 73-23 doubles record over the past four years. She was awarded Mountain West Conference Player of the Week honors six times, including twice this season. The Russian native was named to the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America Second Team at the conclusion of the 2007 season, and has also been named to the Academic All-MWC list for the past three years. Surkova received the MWC Co-Player of the Year award to cap off the 2007 season.

Together with Surkova, Jennifer Miccoli recorded a 13-match doubles win streak in 2007, helping earn them a No. 34 national ranking to end the season. This season, the duo currently has a 10-4 record, including wins over the No. 12 and No. 19 duos from Arkansas and South Carolina, respectively. Together Miccoli and Surkova have been named to the All-MWC team for three consecutive seasons.

Chang currently has a 67-39 overall singles record at BYU. In 2006, the Taiwan native helped put the Cougars into the MWC Championship match with a thrilling 0-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over UNLV's Claire Smith. Together with former Cougar Lauren Jones, Chang was named to the All-MWC team in both 2006 and 2007. This season Chang and Kristina Doerr have been ranked as high as No. 46 in the national doubles rankings, and posted a 12-match win streak to begin the season.

BYU's match against UNLV is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on Friday, with its match against SDSU scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday. Admission to both matches is free. BYU "Y Lot" parking is available to visitors after 4 p.m. on Fridays and all BYU parking is open to the public on Saturdays. Matches will be played outdoors if weather permits.