MISSOULA, Montana – The Bengals men's tennis team traveled to Missoula, Montana to take on the University of Montana on Easter Sunday.
Beginning in the doubles matches, the first duo for ISU, playing in the #1 doubles spot, was
Victor Sklenka and
Valentino De Pellegrin, who would cruise to a 6-3 win over UM's Martin/Perez. In the #3 doubles match,
Ege Cankus and
Hiroki Fujita could not get it done, falling to Bittner/Zhang, 3-6. With the doubles point all coming down to the #2 doubles match,
Wikus Robbertse and
Andreas Kramer battled for the Bengals, but would be unable to come through, falling to Stoeger/Wiger-Nordas in a tiebreak, 6-7 (2-7).
Heading into singles play ISU knew they would need to come out strong if they were to come back against the Griz. However, Idaho State would not get off to a great start in singles, with
Valentino De Pellegrin falling to the Griz's T. Bittner in the #1 singles match, 0-6, 4-6, followed by
Patrick Kristensen just falling in the #4 singles match to G. Martin, 4-6, 5-7. Down 0-3, the Bengals needed each win from here on out, and
Andreas Kramer would deliver in the #3 singles match, defeating F. Perez, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. In the #2 singles match
Victor Sklenka would look to find any way he could to earn the win, but in the end would fall 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 4-6. In the #5 singles match
Hiroki Fujita would fall 4-6, 4-6, and to wrap up the match,
Wikus Robbertse get the win in the #6 singles match for Idaho State, defeating UM's C. Zhang, 6-4, 6-3. Following Robbertse's match the Bengals would fall to the Griz, 2-5.
Following the loss, Idaho State moves to 11-8 overall and 3-2 in Big Sky Conference play.
Head coach Oliver Good gave his remarks on the team's play in Missoula, "Montana was just too good today. We competed well, but they won a tight doubles point and played some great tennis late in sets. We are looking forward to NAU next week."
The Bengals will play their next match on the road in Flagstaff, Arizona against Northern Arizona University on Sunday, April 7
th at 10 AM.
