Cougars fall to Portland on the road

BYU vs. Portland box score

PORTLAND—After getting its first West Coast Conference win against San Francisco earlier this week, the BYU women’s tennis team fell to Portland 6-1 Friday afternoon.

"Portland is tough to play on their courts and we didn't get the doubles point that we needed to start the match," BYU head coach Lauren Jones-Spencer said. "The girls fought hard in singles but we just weren't able to convert the big points today."

Portland (2-5, 1-0 WCC) started the match by winning the doubles point. The Pilots’ Tatiana Grigoryan and Radin Dimitrova quickly knocked off the Cougar duo of Natella Nabieva and Erica Chichoni, 6-1. However, strong doubles play by Savannah Ware and Nicolette Poulsen led to a 6-3 victory for the Cougars over Portland’s Emily Gould and Maja Mladenovic. Portland claimed the doubles point when Lucia Butkovska and Jelena Lazarevic defeated BYU’s Mayci Jones and Toby Miclat, 6-3.

BYU (2-8, 1-1 WCC) failed to win the first three singles matches played. Jones dropped her match 2-6, 0-6 to Portland’s Butkovska, who is ranked No. 100 in the country for singles. Miclat lost to Dimintrova 5-7, 2-6 to give Portland the 3-0 lead.

Mladenovic sealed the match for the Pilots, defeating Poulsen 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Ware lost to Grigoryan in three sets, 6-2, 2-6, 0-1, and Beckman dropped her match as well. Nabieva put up the only points for the Cougars on the night, defeating Tori Troesch 6-2, 6-3.

The Cougars head to Boise next weekend for a doubleheader against Boise State and UNLV. Fans can click here to follow the action live.