POCATELLO, Idaho – The Bengals men's tennis squad returned home to Reed Gym after being gone for the last two matches, taking on Weber State University.
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 defeat Marouani/Sarap 6-3. In the #2 doubles match,
Wikus Robbertse and
Andreas Kramer would get it done in the clutch, defeating Kruger/Coutinho, 6-4. In the #3 doubles match,
Ege Cankus and
Hiroki Fujita battled for the Bengals, and earned the win, 6-4, giving the Bengals a sweep in the doubles matches.
Heading into singles play ISU knew they would need keep up the same energy if they were to pull out the win.
Victor Sklenka would get the Bengals off to a hot start, downing WSU's C. Kruger 6-4, 6-4 in the #3 singles match.
Valentino De Pellegrin would fall in the #1 singles match, 6-7 (5-7), 2-6, followed by
Andreas Kramer dropping the #2 singles match to E. Marouani, 6-7 (4-7), 2-6, knotting the team score up at 2-2. In the #4 singles match
Patrick Kristensen would earn the big come from behind win for ISU. As Kristensen would go on to defeat J. Coutinho 1-6, 6-0, 6-4. To finish off singles play
Hiroki Fujita would be playing in the #5 singles match and
Wikus Robbertse would be playing in the #6 singles match for Idaho State. Both Fujita and Robbertse would win their matches, Fujita clinching the win for the Bengals over T. Minh 6-2, 0-6, 6-4, and Robbertse downing W. Zulch, 4-6, 6-0, 7-6 (7-3). Following Robbertse & Fujita's wins to close out the match, the Bengals would go on to defeat the Wildcats, 5-2, ending their two-match losing skid.
Following the win, Idaho State improves to 12-9 overall and 4-3 in Big Sky Conference play.
Head coach Oliver Good gave his thoughts following the team's win, "Great win by the guys today against a quality opponent in Weber State. There were a lot of close matches, but we kept our composure and played some great tennis when it counted. We are looking forward to a good week of practice before Eastern Washington next week."
The Bengals will close out their regular season, as they host Eastern Washington, on Friday, April 19
th at 11 AM for senior day.
