The Idaho women’s tennis team escaped the snowy weather over the weekend and headed East to take on two opponents in Wyoming.
First, the Vandals fell 5-2 to the Wyoming Cowgirls Friday. Idaho fell to Wyoming 1-6 in February during the first game of the spring season.
Idaho bounced back Saturday, defeating Hastings College.
Wyoming got out to an early lead in doubles play. Sophomore Marianna Petrei and junior Lucia Badillos defeated Tessa Van der Ploeg and Elisa Koonik 6-1. Freshman Jessica Brzozowska and senior Claire Yang fell in the next match, bringing the doubles score 1-1.
With the opening point on the line, it was up to sophomore Maria Tavares and junior Ana Batiri to keep Idaho from suffering an early deficit. However, the two Vandals failed to defeat Dorottya Jonas and Ana Tkachenko.
The Cowgirls extended their lead heading into the singles matches. Jones earned another quick victory, defeating Brzozowska 6-2, 6-2.
Petrei, the Big Sky Player of the week, earned her sixth singles win in a row Magdalena Stencel.
Badillos did her best to tie the match at 2-2, but van Der Ploeg came out on top in a contested back-and-forth.
Tavares saved the Vandals from an early loss by beating Milka Genkova in a tie-breaking set 6-1.
Tkachenko finally put the nail in the coffin by beating Yang 6-1, 6-3 on court No. 6.
The next day, the Vandals faced Hastings College. The smaller, Nebraska based school proved no match for Idaho. The Vandals cruised past the Broncos 7-0.
In a change of pace, Idaho jumped out to an early lead in doubles. The Vandals swept all three matches, and no team gave up more than one point.
Badillos earned Idaho’s second point of the day after she beat Christy Baily in two 6-0 sets, setting a trend for the rest of the matches.
Tavares also won in a blowout match, as did Brzozowska. Petrei, normally the Vandals’ most dominant and consistent player, was the only one of her teammates to drop a game. After a convincing 6-0 win in the first set, she lost two games against Kelsey Brown in the second. However, Petrei still came out on top, winning the second set 6-2.
The win put Petrei at 9-1 on the season in singles.
Yang and Batiri closed out the day with two blowout matches of their own.
Idaho (7-5, 4-0 BSC) sit atop the Big Sky Conference, followed by Northern Arizona and Montana State.
The Vandals get back to conference competition against Eastern Washington Mar. 8 in Cheney. The Eagles (1-8, 1-1 BSC) have had trouble maintaining momentum this season. Idaho’s match will begin in Cheney. Then Vandals will return home to take on Seattle University.
Brandon Hill can be reach at [email protected] or on Twitter @brandonmtnhill