Bengals Advance to Big Sky Title Match

 
POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's tennis team is playing for a Big Sky Conference championship. The Bengals defeated the University of Idaho, 4-0, on Saturday morning in Phoenix, Ariz. This is the only the third time the Bengals have played for a championship under the current format that began in 1993.

Idaho State is set to rematch NAU at 8 a.m. in Phoenix. The Bengals lost 6-1 to NAU on March 26 in Flagstaff.  

"We knew we needed to come out and have a really good doubles point," Idaho State coach Alexander Free said. "We started a little slow but our guys had tremendous resislence to fight back. In single, Wikkus, getting off in six, he has been so solid for us all year. Winning five first sets really sets the tone. This is the best team match we have played all year. Our freshmen and Pat steam rolling, probably the conference player of the year 6-0 in the first set took the air out of their team. We have earned the right to play for a conference championship and we get a rematch vs. NAU that we are hungry for. We are going to come out and bring it tomorrow."

The Bengals won the doubles point. Jaime Castillo-Lopez and Gary Rendek earned the first victory at No. 3 doubles, winning 6-3 over Adam Taylor and Alejandro Salvador.

The deciding match came at No. 1 doubles when Aleksander Petrovic and Patrik Trhac beat Francisco Bascon and Bruno Casino, 7-5.

In singles play, the Bengal victories came when Trhac beat Bascon 6-0, 6-4 at No. 1 singles. Hiroki Fujita won 6-3, 6-2 at No. 3 singles and Wikkus Robbertse won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 6 singles. The remaining three matches were unfinished as ISU already clinched the match.

After starting the season 0-7, the Bengals have won eight of their last 11 matches.

"We had a rough start to the season," Free said. "We played some really good teams and ended up 0-7 to start the season and throughout all the lows of the season we just talked about wanting to be the best team we could be at the end of the season. All of the credit to our team. They stayed resilient and trusted in our process and now we have won eight of the last 11 and have the opportunity to compete for a spot in the NCAA tournament."
 
Notes
- Before 1993 championships were played in a round-robin format. The team with the most points or best record was crowned the champion. Idaho State won the championship in 1965 and 1995. Idaho State lost to NAU, 4-2 in the title match in 1997.