The Vandal men’s tennis team had big hopes going into the weekend, but things didn’t go quite as planned despite Jose Bendeck and Matt Oddonetto’s strong results in consolation play.
The Pacific Northwest Intercollegiate tournament was the last one of the fall season for the Vandals, aside from the pair headed to nationals. Idaho Director of Tennis Jeff Beaman said there were ups and downs, but he would have liked to see some wins in the main draws.
“I would have liked to have seen a stronger finish to most of the guy’s fall competitive season but they put a lot of effort in and it was a tough event,” Beaman said.
Idaho did have a couple players with strong results, including Oddonetto, a freshman, who had one of the best finishes of his college career.
After losing a tough first round match in his flight to a University of Washington player, Oddonetto entered the consolation bracket with something to prove.
“A lot of people don’t take the back draw seriously, but at this tournament there is good kids from all the schools,” Oddonetto said. “Nobody there is a bad player, even in the back draw, so you have to take it serious.”
Oddonetto defeated a Portland State player 6-1, 6-2 in the first round, had a bye in the second round, and won his quarterfinal match due to an opponent injury. He then beat a University of Washington player 2-6, 6-0, 10-4 to advance to the finals where he lost 6-1, 6-1 to Jackson Martin from the University of Portland.
“He continues to show that he has potential to be a really strong player down the road and he competes really well,” Beaman said.
Vandal junior Jose Bendeck also took his consolation matches very seriously and was able to win the flight.
He started with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over a Seattle University player and then had a bye in the second round. Bendeck’s quarterfinal match was a tough one, but the Colombia native pulled through, beating an Eastern Washginton player 2-6, 6-1, 10-2. He won his semi-final match 6-3, 6-2 and then won the finals due to his opponent withdrawing because of an injury.
“He lost a very tough first round against a very strong U-Dub player and instead of just throwing it in, he went out and competed hard for the rest of the weekend,” Beaman said.
Those were the two strong results on the weekend with the rest of the team dropping out in the earlier rounds. In singles, Filip Fichtel lost in the first round of the main draw and in consolation. Jake Knox, Cristobal Ramos, and Abid Akbar all made it to the round of 16 in their main draws but didn’t play consolation matches.
Idaho had three doubles pairings in the tournament as well, as Bendeck and Torres, Akbar and Ramos, and Fichtel and Knox played together. Only Fichtel and Knox were able to advance past the first round, but the pair lost in the second.
Akbar and Ramos have had success at this tournament before and Beaman hoped for a little more out of them this weekend.
“Those are two guys that are great at doubles, they have played well together in the past and they didn’t both show up for that match,” Beaman said.
Oddonetto said that tournaments with high caliber players competing are hard to go deep in.
“At these tournaments there is not much that separates any of the guys so it all comes down to little things,” Oddonetto said. “It’s a little disappointing but I think overall we all had a good effort and it was a good experience.”
The majority of the team has concluded its fall season, but will be cheering on Akbar and Marius Cirstea, who head to the National Indoor Championships in Flushing Meadows, New York, this week.
Charles Crowley can be reached at [email protected]