After last weekend’s disappointing Boise double header the Vandals got back on the winning track on Thursday as they went on the road and defeated Montana 4-2 in Missoula.
The victory improves the Vandals record to 8-13, and drops Montana to 9-11 on the season.
After sitting out close to a month with a forearm injury, Cristobal Ramos-Salazar made his return to the court as he and doubles partner Jose Bendeck continued their dominant spring season with a 7-6 victory over Montana’s Ethan Vaughn and Semion Branzburg.
There was some noticeable rust, but it was key to get that out of the way now, Idaho coach Jeff Beaman said. Beaman knows Ramos-Salazar and Bendeck know how to play together and having the duo back together is huge for the team going into the WAC Tournament.
Along with a victory from the No. 1 doubles pairing, the Vandals went on to sweep the other two doubles matches as Odon Barta and Andrew Zedde defeated Montana’s Tomasz Soltyka and Peter Mimnagh Fleming 8-4. Cesar Torres and Artemiy then completed the doubles sweep as they handled Zach Drost and Eric Braun.
“We used to today to take a look at two different pairings for two and three.–we know who our ones are but we are still looking at our two and three,” Beaman said.
After the doubles sweep, the Vandals picked up key three set victories by Jose Bendeck and Artemiy Nikitin over Montana’s Andrew Warren and Banzburg respectively.
Although Salazar stumbled out of the gates against Soltyka and came up short, but in the process he showed that he is still going to be a crucial part of the Vandal lineup, Beaman said.
A hard fought win like this coming off of a stretch of blowout losses may have been just what Idaho needs as the season winds down.
“You don’t want to go and blow somebody out. You want to get pushed and compete hard,” Beaman said. “They’re number two in the Big Sky right now. Montana definitely pushed us. It could have gone either way if we didn’t step up.”
Torres also came away victorious on the singles side as he defeated Drost 7-5, 6-2. These three singles victories along with the doubles point clinched the match for Idaho before Zedde and Alex Braun’s match at No. 6 singles was able to finish.
Getting things around at the right time for the conference tournament is what’s important. With the Vandals record as it stands they won’t be in consideration for an NCAA tournament bid but there is nothing the team can do about that now. Winning the conference tournament is all they can control, Beaman said.
The Vandals have one last match before the conference tournament kicks off in Las Cruces, N.M., with LCSC in Moscow on April 19.
Joshua Gamez can be reached at [email protected]