Women’s Tennis
The UC Davis Aggies defeated the Vandals by a 5-2 margin of victory. UCD won all three opening matches in doubles, claiming the first point and jumping ahead to a 1-0 lead. Lena Beckx and Chenyue Xu were the only singles winners for the University of Idaho. Two Vandals, Naomi Schraeder and Hannah Koprowska, were both taken out in straight sets, breaking UI’s three-game winning streak.
They hoped to bounce back against Big Sky opponent Sacramento State, but the second-best team in the conference was too much for the Vandals. They fell once again, this time by a closer score of 4-3. UI started off strong by winning doubles and grabbing the 1-0 lead but were outplayed 4-2 in singles. Schraeder and Diana Khaydarshina were the two lone victors for Idaho.
With back-to-back losses at the end of their regular season, UI enters the Big Sky Championship as the No. 3 seed, finishing with an overall record of 14-5 and 6-2 in conference play. They will match up against the No. 6 seed Portland State Vikings in round one.
Men’s Tennis
On April 12, ISU defeated UI 5-2. Bengals won the first two doubles matches with the third going unfinished since ISU already had the 1-0 lead.
The only two Vandals to win in singles were Francisco Gay and Sebastian Medica. Both men won their matches in two sets and Gay even won one of his in a tiebreak. The other UI players were outplayed by ISU. The Bengals gave the Vandals their second straight loss.
The following matchup was in Logan, Utah against the Utah State Aggies on April 13. UI was completely shutout 7-0. Swept entirely in doubles and all but one singles match ending in two set sweeps. Chetanna Amadike was the only Vandal to go the distance but fell 6-3, 2-6, 4-6.
The Vandal men only had one game to close out the regular season, played against the defending Big Sky champion Sacramento State Hornets. UI won two of the three doubles matches to earn the opening point. In singles, Sebastian Medica and Yu-Shun Lai each won in straight sets, but SCSU took the remaining four match ups, resulting in their 4-3 win.
However, after the completion of the match, UI head coach Raleigh Grossbaum filed a protest arguing that SCSU had submitted an incorrect lineup regarding the order of ability. The committee ultimately sided with the coach and awarded UI a point, resulting in a score flip and a 4-3 win for the Vandals.
With the victory to cap off the regular season, the Vandals finished with a record of 11-9 and 5-3 in conference play. They enter the Big Sky tournament as the No. 4 seed and will play the No. 5 seed Weber State Wildcats in the opening round.
The Big Sky tennis championships will take place April 24-26 at the Phoenix Tennis Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
You can reach Jackson Hamelund at [email protected]