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The women’s tennis team increased its winning streak to six games this weekend after dominating Santa Clara 4-0.
The Vandals traveled across the border to Pullman on Saturday where they played their only match of the weekend and increased their overall record to 13-8.
The match was quickly determined after the Vandals won the first three singles matches. The two teams agreed before the matches began to play only until a winner was determined.
The team is having its best performances of the season and Idaho coach Jeff Beaman said now the young team will have to learn how it feels to win and maintain its level
of play.
“It’s one of the things they’re going to have to learn,” Beaman said. “The bad thing about learning it is that you’ve got to stumble.”
The young team has completely turned around its losing record from earlier this season and has now won 10 of the last 11 matches.
“It’s really positive that they’ve exceeded expectations especially after a rough start,” Beaman said. “It just shows that there’s a lot of talent there. They’re maturing quickly. They’re learning what college tennis is about.”
The women’s next match is on Sunday at home against Portland State, who they swept 7-0 earlier this season. The match will begin at 9 a.m.
The men’s tennis team traveled to Bronco country this weekend where they were met by nationally ranked Boise State and the University of San Diego.
The men had a disappointing 1-6 loss on Saturday against Boise State, which is ranked 36th in the nation and is on a 9-game winning streak.
“We had some close matches,” Beaman said. “Right now they’re just honestly a better team than we are.”
Beaman said that everyone on the team had a chance to win but just didn’t capitalize on the opportunity.
“When you get chances you have to capitalize,” Beaman said. “The better teams take advantage of those chances.”
The men took to the courts on Sunday where they lost to the University of San Diego, which is currently ranked 61st in the nation.
Beaman said every match was close, but the men just didn’t take advantage of their opportunities.
“When it’s a close first set, their guys were winning it and our guys weren’t,” Beaman said. “That’s the difference between making up to that upper level.”
The Vandals looked ready when they hit the courts and had no problem picking up the doubles point. But San Diego quickly realized that the Vandals were there to play and stepped up their game to win five of six singles matches for the 5-2 win.
“The better teams can just take it up that little extra notch and that’s what our players needed to do,” Beaman said.
The men play their final regular season match at home at 3 p.m. Saturday against Gonzaga.
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