After an impressive two-match sweep last weekend, the Idaho men’s tennis team hit the road again for a double-header against Utah State and BYU. After a 4-3 loss to Utah State on Saturday, the Vandals went winless going 7-0 against BYU.
“We need to play better,” Idaho coach Jeff Beaman said. “It’s not about a lack of talent — we need to live up to that talent and compete better.”
Idaho and USU battled it out on the singles side with Idaho’s Jose Bendeck, Cristobal Ramos Salazar and Cesar Torres coming out victorious in their singles contests — so it all came down to the doubles point that USU managed to wrestle away from Idaho 2-1.
No. 1 singles pairing Bendeck and Ramos Salazar were undefeated going into their matchup with USU’s pairing of Dennis Baumgartner and Marcus Fritz. The two teams battled back and forth, but in the end Baumgartner and Fritz outlasted Bendeck and Ramos Salazar to hand the Vandals’ pairing their first defeat of the spring season 8-7.
Ramos Salazar and Bendeck’s doubles streak wasn’t the only one that Baumgartner ended. He defeated Idaho’s Artemiy Nikitin at No. 1 singles, terminating his three-match winning streak.
Bendeck and Ramos Salazar got back on the winning track when the Vandals took to the courts in Provo, Utah. The pairing defeated BYU’s Andrey Goryachkov and Robin Pfister 8-7 (7-2). They were the lone Vandals to score victories on both the doubles or singles side Saturday.
“We came out and competed in the doubles, had three close matches, but didn’t get the point,” Beaman said.
The team had some competitive singles matches as well, but not quite well enough to get a victory, he said.
Beaman said BYU is one of the better teams the Vandals have played this year, but he said the team isn’t as good as it was in 2013 when it was ranked No. 23 in the nation.
“They are in a rebuilding year and we are in a rebuilding year also,” he said.
The two losses drop the Vandals to 5-8 on the season. They currently sit at third in the WAC standings at 3-5 in the conference, behind New Mexico State and Grand Canyon.
The Vandals will return on March 17 when they travel to Stockton, Calif., to take on Pacific.
Joshua Gamez can be reached at [email protected]