The Idaho men’s tennis team concluded its three-day road trip with another conference win and a heartbreaking loss to a Big 12 opponent.
Idaho shut out Texas-Arlington 4-0 on Monday to improve to 4-0 in Western Athletic Conference play. The Vandals followed that win with a narrow 4-3 loss to Oklahoma State on Tuesday in Tulsa, Okla., to drop them to 19-4 on the season. Idaho went 1-2 on the road trip overall with one of their losses coming against Southern Methodist on March 31.
Idaho’s victory over UTA dropped the Mavericks to 0-3 in the conference and 6-11 overall. The Vandals’ dominating win showed they are a force to be reckoned with in the WAC, Idaho coach Jeff Beaman said.
“It definitely set the tone that we’re one of the top teams in the conference,” Idaho coach Jeff Beaman said.
Unfortunately for the Vandals, they lost one of their key players and senior leaders for an undetermined amount of time during the UTA match. Senior Marius Cirstea went down with an injury during the No. 3 doubles match in which he and fellow senior Ivan Krijanto lost 8-6. Beaman said he does not know yet when Cirstea will be able to play again this season.
The injury did not slow down Idaho, which went on to win the doubles point. Senior Abid Akbar and sophomore Dmitry Perevoshchikov paired up for only the second time this season to win the No. 1 doubles match 9-8. Sophomore Cristobal Ramos Salazar and junior Jose Bendeck earned an 8-6 win at No. 2.
Once the Vandals attained the doubles point, they rolled in the singles matches to clinch the victory. Perevoshchikov won the No. 1 singles match, Bendeck won at No. 3 and Ramos Salazar won at No. 4, while the other three matches went unfinished.
Idaho then traveled to Tulsa to take on the Big 12 Cowboys, who had yet to beat a ranked opponent all season. It was what Beaman called a “roller-coaster” match with five of the six singles competitions going to three sets and the doubles point going down to the wire.
“It definitely could have gone either way at times,” Beaman said.
Krijanto and Torres lost 8-3 at the No. 3 doubles match, but Ramos Salazar and Bendeck were able to pull off an 8-3 upset win at No. 2 over Richard Del Nunzio and Denys Pume, the 70th ranked combo in the country.
It came down to the No. 1 match where Idaho was without the reliably strong duo of Akbar and Cirstea. Akbar paired up again with Perevoshchikov at No. 1, but this time lost 8-5.
Without the doubles point, Idaho needed four singles match wins to clinch the victory.
Idaho battled with Perevoshchikov winning at No. 1, Bendeck at No. 3 and Ramos Salazar at No. 4 – all in three sets. Sophomore Cesar Torres lost in three sets at No. 5 and Krijanto lost at No. 6.
The victory then hinged on the No. 2 match featuring Akbar and the Cowboys’ Chris Hawarth. It went to three sets with Hawarth coming back to force a tiebreaker in the third. Hawarth went on to win 7-6 to give the Cowboys the point and the win.
Idaho will have a chance to rest from its tough road trip before the Vandals face Big Sky opponent Sacramento State, Sunday in Moscow. For only the second time this season, Idaho will enjoy a home crowd and, if the weather cooperates, will be able to compete on their own court for the first time. Idaho’s last “home” match, which occurred last week against New Mexico State, was played in Pullman due to inclement weather.
The Sacramento State Hornets will have momentum on their side. They have won five straight matches in a row and are second in the Big Sky standings with a 7-1 conference record and 12-10 overall mark. Redshirt freshman Niranjan Ram was this week’s Big Sky Tennis Player of the Week, the fifth time a Hornet has won the award this season. He went 3-0 in singles play during the team’s last three matches.
Idaho, though, has reason to be confident, since it is 5-0 against Big Sky opponents this year. A win would give the Vandals their 20th victory, which surpasses their win total last season, when they went 14-14, and two season ago when they went 19-8. Sunday’s match will be played at 9 a.m.
Anthony Kuipers can be reached at [email protected]