The Idaho men’s tennis team began their spring season with a convincing 7-0 victory against UC Riverside Sunday in Lewiston.
The defending Big Sky Conference champions entered the spring season with a new head coach.
Former head coach Jeff Beaman left the Vandals in July to accept the head coaching position at the University of West Alabama.
In Beaman’s absence, the Vandals hired head coach Abid Akbar.
Akbar spent the previous two seasons as an assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s programs.
The new head coach said he has goals for the men’s tennis team to repeat as Big Sky champions.
“It was an ideal start to the year,” Akbar said. “I am very pleased with the way the team competed. It was great to see the freshman step up and play very mature tennis today.”
Despite the coaching changes, the Vandals entered the spring season with a victorious sweep in all three doubles competition, highlighted by the Vandal duo of Mark Kovacs and Jackson Varney defeating Julian Ruffin and Sean Yun 6-2 to begin play for Idaho.
In singles, five of the matches concluded in two sets, beginning with Felipe Fonseca’s victory over Sean Yun 6-0, 6-1 on the second court. The result was followed by Odon Barta beating Julian Ruffin 6-0, 6-3.
Ukrainian freshman Artem Vasheshnikov won 6-3, 6-0 over Calvin Ngo on the fourth court to stretch the lead to 4-0 and clinch the victory for the Vandals.
Varney defeated Hans Baumstark 6-1, 6-3 to extend the Vandal lead to 5-0.
The third court proved to be the longest match of the day, as Kovacs ousted Kyle McCann in three sets (6-2, 3-6, 6-3).
Freshman Lucas Coutinho wrapped up the match with a 7-6 (5-0), 6-3 win over Anderson Ju to complete the 7-0 sweep over UC Riverside.
As a result the Vandal sweep, UC Riverside falls to 0-5 this season.
Idaho finished the 2015 season with an 8-3 conference record and a 4-2 conference victory over Northern Arizona. It was the Idaho’s 11th Big Sky title and the team’s first since 1978.
The Vandals were eliminated by No. 7 seed USC for the second straight year in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Trojans handed the Vandals a 4-0 loss.
The Idaho men’s tennis team was selected to finish second in Big Sky preseason coaches’ poll behind top-ranked Weber State. Idaho earned five first place votes and 112 points overall, three points shy of the Wildcats.
The Vandals will begin the team’s first of two road trip matches on Saturday. The team will face the University of Portland.
Idaho’s next in-state match will be against Lewis & Clark State College and Whitman Feb. 13 in Lewiston.
Luis Torres can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @TheLTFiles