FLAGSTAFF, Arizona – The Idaho State men's tennis team traveled to Flagstaff, Arizona to take on the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks.
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 fall 3-6 to NAU's Buzonics/Prachar. In the #3 doubles match,
Ege Cankus and
Hiroki Fujita would get it done in the clutch, defeating De Boes/Agynskyy, 6-3. 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 Torres/Ziomber 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 Lumberjacks. However, Idaho State would not get off to a great start in singles, with
Hiroki Fujita falling to the 'Jack's M. Ziomber in the #5 singles match, 1-6, 3-6, followed by
Wikus Robbertse falling in the #6 singles match to J. Prachar, 4-6, 3-6. Down 0-3, the Bengals needed each win from here on out, and
Valentino De Pellegrin would deliver in the #1 singles match, defeating D. Buzonics, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. In the #3 singles match
Andreas Kramer would look to find any way he could to earn the win, but in the end would fall 6-2, 5-7, 2-6. In the #2 singles match
Victor Sklenka would fall 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 4-6, and to wrap up the match,
Patrick Kristensen would earn the win in the #4 singles match for Idaho State, defeating NAU's S. Agynskyy, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Following Kristensen's match the Bengals would fall to the Lumberjacks, 2-5.
Following the loss, Idaho State moves to 11-9 overall and 3-3 in Big Sky Conference play.
Head coach Oliver Good gave his thoughts on the team's play in Flagstaff, "Our guys competed hard against a quality side in NAU. There were a lot of tight matches that we can learn from and be even better next week. Looking forward to our next big challenge on Saturday against Weber State."
The Bengals will return home to Reed Gym to close out their regular season, as they host Weber State on Saturday, April 13
th at 11 AM, followed by their regular season finale and senior day versus Eastern Washington on Friday, April 19
th also at 11 AM.
