Sol O'Lideadha Captures ITA Regional Championship

 
POCATELLO, Idaho- The thought of being a regional champion gets Sol O'Lideadha a little emotional. She will be the first to admit that four-to-five years ago she and her sister Lola were not very good at tennis. But after meeting with a recruiting agent the two decided to put in the work.

"We played four hours a day and played in every tournament under the sun," Sol said. "We would play in the rain in Ireland. All we thought about was tennis. Even our freshman year at ISU we knew we were at the bottom. We would come early to practice every day and work hard. Hard work has definitely paid off."

Now Sol can call herself an ITA Regional Champion as she won the field in her second flight in Las Vegas, Nev. 

"She was amazing and had to adapt her game style in every match," Idaho State coach Gretchen Maloney said.
Sol started the week beating Mathilde Sarcelet of Nevada 7-5, 6-2. She then went on to beat Lauren Dunlap of Montana 6-4, 6-2.

"I wasn't nervous against Montana but I thought I played really smart, kept it deep and stuck with the game plan," O'Lideadha said.

In the next round O'Lideadha dominated Ryan Kershner of Boise State, 6-0, 6-0.

"I played really clean and didn't make many errors in that match," she said.

Next up in the quarterfinals was Coco Zhao from UNLV, a match that resulted in a 7-5, 6-3 victory.

As each win came, the one thing that didn't faze O'Lideadha was who she was going to play next. In fact, the only reason she knew was because Maloney would tell her the night before.

"I never checked who I was supposed to play," Sol said. "I was just going to play whomever was on the court next. I didn't care. Gretchen would tell me and I am like, "Ok."
The semi-final match against Yijia Jiao of BYU was a match that Sol did have her eye on from the very beginning.

"I lost to her in three sets last year in the first round of this same tournament," Sol said. "I really wanted to beat her."

Beat her she did as Sol came away with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 victory to advance to the title match.

Sol would win the title after Hsuan Huang of New Mexico had to with drawl.

"I was fortunate to have Gretchen on my court for all my matches and that really helped me," Sol said. "My teammates also really helped me. They would tell me how good I was doing and I would believe it. I would not have won if it was not for them. I am grateful for my teammates."

A big key in Sol's success this fall has been the change in her mental approach. She added, "Every time I walk on the court I know I am going to win. Last year I always thought that because they were a bigger school that they were better. But now I have realized that a different logo doesn't always mean they are better."

The ITA Regionals was the final fall tournament for the Bengals. The success the team has had this fall has motivated them to come back even better in the spring.

"Everyone's confidence is going up," Sol said. "We are so much more confident. We truly believe we are going to win."

Maloney is seeing that same confidence in her entire team.

"The girls are maturing and dialed in to what they need to do to win a match," she said. "They know what they need to do to make adjustments and they really want to win a conference title. They are all in. Regionals were so great because they learned so much from watching other players. At the end of the tournament everyone is telling me how they want to improve or pick up skills they saw other players do."