BYU participant serves in opposition to Washington throughout the 2022-23 season. This coming season, as members of the Large 12, the Cougars could have their palms full. Brooklynn Kelson, BYU Picture
BYU doubles group fives one another throughout match in opposition to Washington in 2023. Brooklynn Kelson, BYU Picture
Editor’s be aware: Sixth in a sequence of articles analyzing how every BYU program will stack up in opposition to its new convention foes. Immediately’s program: ladies’s tennis.
BYU ladies’s tennis was placed on the map because of legendary head coach Ann Valentine. Throughout a 27-year teaching profession, Valentine amassed 427 victories, making her the second-winningest Division I coach in NCAA tennis historical past. She led the Cougars to fifteen convention championships and coached 31 All-Individuals. Valentine was additionally named the 1995 Wilson/ITA Nationwide Coach of the 12 months and is a Ladies’s Collegiate Tennis Corridor of Fame inductee.
The Cougars additionally had a pleasant run within the early 2000s, together with six NCAA postseasons throughout seven seasons from 2001-07.
But the 2007 Mountain West Convention title and 2007 NCAA Event are the final convention championships or postseason look BYU has claimed. Head coach Holly Hasler, herself a former BYU All-American, has had BYU trending upward her earlier 5 seasons on the helm, however the Cougars are nonetheless searching for a breakthrough.
Of their last season as members of the West Coast Convention, Hasler and the Cougars went 6-3 in convention, ending fourth, with a 13-9 document total. Highlights from the season embody sweeping No. 44 Utah, the primary win over the Utes since 2009, and Cougars Emilee Astle and Jacque Dunyon defeating the No. 1-ranked doubles group within the nation in opposition to Pepperdine. Bobo Huang was named to the Singles All-WCC First Workforce, whereas Astle and Dunyon had been named to the Doubles All-WCC Second Workforce.
Huang, Astle, and Dunyon all return for BYU, as does many of the roster from final season. Junior Kendall Kovick, a switch who beforehand performed at West Virginia, additionally not too long ago signed with Cougars.
Large 12 ladies’s tennis
Texas has most constantly been the Large 12’s cream of the crop. The Longhorns gained NCAA titles in each 2021 and 2022 earlier than ending final season ranked seventh, their sixth-straight top-10 end. Texas has gone 45-2 throughout the Large 12 common season over the past six years and gained each the common season and event crowns final season.
However that doesn’t imply different Large 12 squads aren’t sturdy as properly. Since 2015, six completely different groups have gained the convention event and 5 completely different groups have completed atop the regular-season standings. Nationally, Texas needed to beat rival Oklahoma to win the 2022 NCAA title, whereas Oklahoma State completed nationwide runner-up in 2016.
As a sampling of the energy of the convention, simply check out the ultimate 2023 ITA rankings. Texas was seventh, Iowa State eighth, Oklahoma thirteenth, Oklahoma State nineteenth, Kansas 23th, Baylor thirty sixth, Texas Tech thirty eighth, UCF thirty ninth, TCU forty sixth and BYU seventy fifth. Iowa State and Texas reached final 12 months’s NCAA Event’s Elite Eight; Oklahoma the Candy 16; Baylor, Kansas and Oklahoma State the second spherical and Texas Tech and UCF the primary spherical.
How will BYU fare?
The 2022-23 season ought to see a couple of convention wins, however BYU’s first 12 months will seemingly see them within the backside half of the standings. BYU is stepping right into a buzzsaw, however the expertise of nice competitors and Hasler’s management will seemingly make the Cougars increasingly more aggressive as time goes on. And don’t be shocked to see them return to the NCAA Event within the subsequent few years.
BYU doubles group fives one another throughout match in opposition to Washington in 2023.
Brooklynn Kelson, BYU Picture