New season, same result

Big Sky Champions come up short in Pac 12 territory

The first week of May was likely comprised of studying for finals and packing up for the summer for most Vandals.

However, for the Idaho tennis teams, it was comprised of a flight to Southern California and matches with two of the top teams in the country.

After both the Idaho men’s and women’s tennis teams won Big Sky Championships April 26, the Vandals began preparations for the NCAA Tournament.

Both tennis teams were appearing in the tournament for the second consecutive season after both teams won the WAC last year during their final season in the conference.

But there was one big difference this year — the team had two coaches this year. Last summer Mariana Cobra was hired as the women’s coach after Myriam Sopel left the program before last spring and Jeff Beaman, the men’s coach, had to handle both teams.

With this being Cobra’s first year with the program, she said she was hoping they would be able to repeat the success of 2014, but she knew it wouldn’t be easy, as they were going to have to compete with the 13-time defending Big Sky Champions Sacramento State.

The team was picked third in the preseason Big Sky coaches’ poll behind SSU and Montana, both teams the Vandals defeated late in the season.

“I think we definitely overachieved,” Cobra said. “We talked every day about being Big Sky champs and I always tell them if somebody keeps telling you something over and over you’ll start believing it, and they started believing it when we played Cal Poly. That was a big turnaround for us.”

The NCAA Tournament proved to be a daunting task for both Idaho teams, as the men faced off with the defending-national champion USC Trojans. The Vandal men should be somewhat familiar with the men of Troy after being swept by them in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament a year ago.

Both the men’s and women’s teams were swept in their opening matches of the tournament when facing off with easily the best team they had faced all year, but that doesn’t mean the team has anything to hang their heads over, Beaman said.

“The spring was special for us,” Beaman said. “We had a great group of guys. With the group we have returning and the guys we have coming in, I fully expect to be back in the NCAA next year.”

The women had just as tough of a draw, as they also drew the defending national champions from Los Angeles, only this team was the Trojans’ cross-town rival in the UCLA Bruins.

“I think we did everything we could, obviously the scores don’t reflect that, but we came and we competed and we gave it our best shot,” Cobra said. ” I think as a whole we played like we played every match this season.”

Now both teams will go into next season riding back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths and the women find themselves as the team to beat going into next season.

“The team to beat next year is going to be Idaho,” Cobra said. “We are no longer the underdog. Right now people are going to think we are the best in our conference, and that is definitely going to have an impact when people come to play us. I guarantee you there will be some teams that will make playing us the highlight of their season.”

Joshua Gamez can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Gamez_VN

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