Vandal tennis hit the road over the weekend, but after just one victory in 14 matches, it looked like the road hit back — and hard.
The men’s team suffered a blowout loss to Oregon in Eugene, while the women faired not much better, losing to Gonzaga 6-1 in Spokane, Washington.
In Saturday’s match against the Bulldogs, senior Maria Tavares scored the lone point for her team on the No. 2 court, defeating Domonique Garley in a tightly contested 7-5, 6-4 match. Unfortunately for the Silver and Gold, the rest of the weekend held nothing but bleak skies and bleaker scores. Junior Shion Watabe managed to be one of the few Vandals to hold her own, narrowly losing Vlada Medvedcova 7-6 in the first set. However, Medvedcova kept her foot on the gas in the second, storming past Watabe 6-1.
Idaho’s top player, Marianna Petrei, did not get the chance to finish her match against 5th-ranked Sophie Wittle, as the match was retired early.
Meanwhile, south of the Washington-Oregon border, the Vandals failed to win a single match against the Ducks. The pairing of senior Lucas Coutinho and freshman Valentin Popescu proved effective among the rest of the afternoon’s chaos. The two notched the lone win in doubles, besting Thomas Laurent and Emmanuel Coste 6-4.
“I felt like we competed with good effort,” head coach Daniel Hangstefer said in a news release. “It was nice to see Val (Popescu) and Lucas (Coutinho) get a win at No. 2 doubles. We were able to take away some very valuable lessons that we plan to implement into practice over the next few weeks. I am optimistic and excited to see this team compete for the spring semester.”
While the Bulldogs posted one nationally ranked player, the Ducks came at the Vandals with two. No. 5 Laurent defeated senior Carlos Longhi Neto 6-1, 6-2, while No. 99 flew past Popescu 6-0, 6-1.
After the opening defeat, Idaho’s schedule will turn to Big Sky competition with a match against Sacramento State slated for Feb. 2 in Moscow. Meanwhile, the women will stay on the road for a meeting with Portland in Seattle Feb. 2. The women will remain in the Emerald City that weekend for a match against Washington Feb. 3.
Brandon Hill can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @brandonmtnhill