Vandals stay close to home

The Vandal women’s tennis team will head to Pullman Friday for the WSU Cougar Classic.
Idaho coach Dan Pollock said the Vandals are ready to compete.
“The girls are starting to see some of their hard work over the last couple of weeks come together and things are starting to fall in to place, so they are very motivated and pretty confident going in to the weekend,” Pollock said.
The Vandals have been practicing for the past couple weeks and this will be their first official college tournament of the season. Pollock said since it will be the debut college of several Vandals, it would be unrealistic to expect them not to be nervous.
“I think for both our returning and new girls this tournament will be a good benchmark to see where they are and where they need to improve,” Pollock said.
The tournament will provide stiff competition for the Vandals. On paper, Washington State and Boise State are the best teams in the tournament and both were nationally ranked last year. Pollock said they aren’t the only threats at the tournament.
“Montana and Gonzaga are also rapidly improving teams that could be very tough match-ups,” Pollock said. “I don’t expect any easy matches this weekend.”
Traveling only eight miles to Pullman for the tournament, the event is almost like a home match for the Vandals. Pollock said it is nice to not have to worry about travel hassles and for the players to be able to stick to their normal daily routine.
“They eat what they would normally eat, wake up and get ready to play in a way that is familiar to them. That’s very comforting for a player,” Pollock said.

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Charles Crowley Sports reporter Senior in broadcasting and digital media Can be reached at [email protected]

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