Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 POCATELLO, Idaho – The Bengals women's tennis team traveled to Portland, Oregon this weekend where they squared off against the Portland State Vikings and the University of Portland Pilots. The Bengals fell to fellow Big Sky member Portland State on Saturday by a score of 5-2, and we saw them drop their game to the University of Portland the following morning by the same score,5-2. Idaho State will move to 6-4 on the season and 2-1 in Big Sky play.
In the Bengals match Saturday morning with the Vikings we saw the No. 2 doubles team of
Hana Cho and Leah Kurvuvilla take it to their matchups, winning by a score of 6-2. Unfortunately, the Bengals were unable to come through in the other two doubles matches falling 6-1 in the No. 1 doubles and 6-4 in the No. 3 doubles match, and losing the doubles team point. In the singles matches we saw
Leah Kuruvilla keep her same tenacity from the doubles match as she made quick work of her No. 5 singles matchup, winning in straight sets 6-3 and 6-2. In the No. 3 singles match
Sol O'Lideadha took it to her opponent as she lost her first set 3-6, but put together an amazing comeback to win the second and third sets, and winning the match 3-6, 7-6, 1-0. However, the other singles matches did not prove to be as fruitful as Hana and Sol's as the Bengals were lost in straight sets in the No. 1, No. 2, No. 4, and No. 6 singles matches
Idaho State sought to bounce back the following morning as they were up against the University of Portland Pilots. The Bengals looked to take control of the doubles point to start the match, however failed to do so as they were swept in the doubles matches and went into the singles trailing 1-0 in the team score. The Bengals could not find many answers in the singles matches as they were beaten in straight sets in the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 singles matches. In the No. 4 singles match
Leah Kuruvilla was putting the team on her back as she took care of business in straight sets 7-6, 6-3. We saw more of the same out of
Olivia Mikkelson in the No. 6 singles match as she showed off her talent downing her opponent in straight sets 6-2, 7-6.
Sydney Morris kept the intensity up in the No. 5 singles match as she fought for the Bengals till the very end, however she came up just short as she lost in a final tiebreaker 0-6, 6-3, 0-1 (8-10).
"Tough weekend on the road. We didn't capitalize against Portland State in the doubles. We had chances to win the doubles point and we didn't close" said head coach,
Gretchen Maloney, "We needed to play cleaner and hit the ball deeper so we could set up our offense better. We definitely learned a lot this weekend and need to make some adjustments but, we will work hard to get that done."
The Bengals will be back on the road this weekend as they travel to Las Vegas, Nevada to take on New Mexico State and UNLV on Saturday at 10 AM and Sunday at 10 AM.
