After smashing through the WAC Championship quarterfinal match, Idaho battled the Hawaii Warriors in the semifinals, but fell short.
File Photo by Ilya Pinchuk | Argonaut Victoria Lozano serves the ball against La. Tech April 22 at the Memorial Gym tennis courts. Idaho won its first-round match of the WAC Championship against Utah State 4-0, but lost to Hawaii, 4-3, in the semi-finals.
“We got as close as you can get to winning without actually winning,” Idaho coach Daniel Pollock said.
Idaho knew Hawaii was nationally ranked and favored heavily to win the match. Freshman Sophie Vickers said the Vandals went out and planned to have fun and give it their best to see what would happen.
“We all did our best, and did what we could but unfortunately we weren’t quite good enough on the day,” Vickers said.
Idaho dropped the doubles point, Pollock said, because the Vandals were too fired up. But singles play was a different story.
“We had the perfect level of energy and produced some of the best performances of the year,” Pollock said.
Idaho was on its way to a comeback with wins at No.1, 2 and 6 singles. Idaho’s No. 1, sophomore Vicky Lozano, said she was nervous but motivated to win the match.
“I just focused on hitting all the balls in and the other girl missed a lot of balls and that helped me a lot too,” Lozano said.
Vickers said Lozano’s win and Almudena Sanz’s win at No. 2 were well deserved.
“Winning against top players from Hawaii topped off a great season for both of them so they should be very happy with the way they played,” Vickers said.
The Hawaii win, coupled with her win in the quarterfinals, earned Lozano a spot on the WAC women’s tennis all-tournament team — one of the top six players.
“I am very happy because that means I was one of the best in the tournament and I have been doing all the right things this season,” Lozano said.
The comeback halted after losses at No. 3 and 5 and it came down to the No. 4 match. It was up to Vickers, Idaho’s only freshman, on her birthday, to advance the team to the finals.
“It’s pretty easy to forget that she is only a freshman,” Pollock said.
He said she plays well and has pulled it out for them multiple times.
“This one time she just wasn’t able to but honestly she played well and she should be proud of what she has done,” Pollock said. “I wasn’t disappointed with her at all.”
Vickers said it was a good match, tight the whole way through and she did all she could.
“Being in the semis in the WAC tourney in my freshman year and being the last match on, it was tough,” Vickers said. “The rest of the girls were great and gave me their support and it really helped.”
Vickers was not the only one hit hard by the tournament and season-ending loss.
“It’s obviously devastating for them, they were all upset, and it chokes you up to see them put so much on the line and not come away with the win,” Pollock said.
The Vandals may not have come away with the win but Pollock said they learned a lot from the experience.
“Hawaii went on to win it all so we can’t be too disappointed that we were literally a breath away from beating a team that wins the entire tournament,” Pollock said.
He said it shows how close the Vandals are to competing at such a high level of tennis.
“They can see if they really bring it and we get the right combination of energy out there on any day they can compete against anybody,” Pollock said.
Vickers said the team knows this loss does not take any thing away from their great season.
“Losing on Friday we were all pretty disappointed but overall looking at the season we have done extremely well and been very successful,” Vickers said. “For a young team I think that’s a great sign for the future of the program.”
Charles Crowley can be reached at [email protected]