2000-2001 Women's Tennis Season Summary
A Mountain West Conference championship, MWC Coach of the Year and Player of the Year, a No. 31 national ranking and a NCAA appearance headline the 2001 season for the BYU women's tennis team.
In only his second year at the helm, head coach Craig Manning led the women's tennis team back to familiar territory, winning its sixth conference title in nine years, but BYU's first since 1998.
After winning the conference tournament, BYU headed to Duke University to face the 28th-ranked University of Alabama in regional action. The Cougars took the doubles point, but couldn't hold on, losing four of five singles to lose 4-2. The lone singles victory for BYU was at the four spot where Brooke Ferney defeated Weyli Chang in three sets.
Jodi Richardson, ranked 44th nationally in singles and 25th in doubles, captured MWC Player of the Year honors and qualified for the NCAA Tournament in singles and doubles. Along with Richardson, Lu Oswald and Dominique Reynolds were named to the all-conference team in singles and Brooke Ferney, Reynolds and Elizaveta Khoudoiarova were named to the all-conference team in doubles.
At NCAAs, Richardson faced the 6th-ranked player in the nation, Arizona State's Adria Engel. Richardson came out strong, winning the first set 4-6. Then, with her back against the wall, Engel came back to take the next two sets, 6-2, 6-3 to grab the win. In doubles, Richardson and teammate Brooke Ferney fell to 21st-ranked Katja Kovac and Jahnavi Parakh of Baylor University 6-3, 7-6.
Reynolds came on strong at the end of the season, moving from the three spot to the two spot. Reynolds and Khoudoiarova were ranked in the top 50 nationally throughout the season. Along with Richardson, Ferney Reynolds, Oswald and Khoudoiarova, others competing for the Cougars were Lindsay Ferrell and Elyse Jensen.
The Cougars finished the regular season with four straight victories before falling to the 1999 conference champion and eighth-ranked Fresno State Bulldogs in a close match, 4-3, without BYU's No.2 player, Dominique Reynolds.
BYU won the MWC crown in impressive fashion. With a 7-0 conference record on the year, the Cougars entered the MWC Tournament as the No.1 seed. The top seed proved to be well-deserved as the Cougars defeated Wyoming 5-0, New Mexico 4-1 and San Diego State 4-3 to take the tournament title.
With Richardson being the only senior on this year's team, the Cougars are looking for a strong season in 2002. Ferney was the team's only junior, while Khoudoiarova, Oswald and Reynolds were sophomores and Ferrell and Jensen were freshmen.
