Marius Cirstea/Abid Akbar- Men’s tennis
For the second consecutive year, a Vandal pairing picked up the doubles title at the ITA Mountain Region Championships in Las Vegas.
With the title, the two will advance to the National Indoor Championships held in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center Nov. 8-11. In the championship match, Akbar and Cirstea defeated the UNLV pair of Ace Matias and Bernard Schoeman in the championship match. The road to the championship match was tight for the Vandal duo, as they beat their quarterfinal and semifinal opponents 9-8.
“It’s their senior year for both guys and they’ve really been focused on achieving this goal,” Idaho coach Jeff Beaman said.
Cirstea won the doubles championship last season with ex-Vandal Andrew Dobbs, who graduated in the spring.
Almudena Sanz- Women’s tennis
To add to her already successful fall campaign, Sanz added to her singles win tally after an impressive weekend at the Portland Invitational. Sanz picked up singles wins in each of her three matches, going 3-0 in her individual group and improving to 11-1 this fall.
“Almu played well enough to win her first two matches, but definitely was not at the top of her game,” coach Dan Pollock said. “By the end of the third match she was really firing though, which was great to see.”
With doubles partner Constance Alexander, Sanz lost her initial match but picked up an 8-1 win in her second round match over a University of Portland pair.
Chelsea Small- Soccer
Idaho snapped La. Tech’s 11-match unbeaten streak Sunday in Ruston, beating the Techsters 2-1. Small, who has been one of the Vandals’ most reliable goal scorers this season, cleaned up Jill Flockhart’s shot in the 12th minute, putting the ball in the back of the net for what would prove to be the winner. Small led all Vandals in shots with four, two of those coming on goal. Small has netted two game winners in Idaho’s last three contests and has four goals in the Vandals’ last six games. She leads all players with seven goals this season.