The Idaho women’s tennis team will venture to Logan, Utah, on Saturday to play Utah State for its final match of the regular season while the the WAC championships loom right around the corner.
Philip Vukelich | Argonaut
Bety Flores, junior, hits a low volley while approaching the net in a practice match Tuesday at the Memorial Gym tennis courts. The Vandals conclude the regular season Saturday against former WAC foe Utah State.
In the past week of inter-conference play the Vandals have gone 2-3, evening their record to 11-11 and 4-4 against WAC opponents. Idaho’s doubles star, Victoria Lozano, has helped her team obtain a more respectable record with 12 consecutive doubles wins with the help of partner Almudena Sanz. Lozano also earned WAC Player of the Week honors for her performances against Seattle U, San Jose State and Texas State last week. Lozano went 2-1 in singles play and 2-0 in doubles.
“She has been playing really well and she definitely helped our team by getting doubles wins with Almu, which takes pressure off and builds momentum for the rest of the team,” Idaho coach Myriam Sopel said. “In singles she has really been stepping up her game in the past month. She has been using everything we’ve been working on all semester and applying it efficiently to her game and performing really well. She has proved that she can beat any player in the conference and she really deserves this WAC Player of the Week honor.”
The Vandals’ 4-0 loss to No. 66 San Jose State last weekend is a sample of top-seeded competitive teams that the Vandals will face on April 26 when the WAC Tournament begins in Denver. The Spartans’ Klaudia Boczova, also No. 47 in the nation, was the only blemish to Lozano’s nearly perfect week. Sopel insists the Vandals will be competitive come the tournament despite playing ranked rivals.
“We had a tough start obviously but we just did well to each other as a team adjusting to players and players adjusting to me. We’ve come such a long way, it’s been a rollercoaster, it’s an ascending slope and we’re rising to the top,” Sopel said. “We will finish on a strong note for the WAC championship. I really feel we can take it all.”
Utah State, who is currently sitting at 5-12, will most likely serve as less of a challenge to the Vandals than teams like San Jose State and Denver, but Sopel said the match is still important and that a team’s record means very little.
“It is a good match to get really prepared for the WAC Tournament, we’re favored on paper but we don’t want to get too much ahead of ourselves,” Sopel said. “We’ll be trying new things and getting ready for the major goal of the match to get the win and to play at elevation for Denver.”
If the Vandals win the final match, the team could potentially end the season with a winning record of 12-11 overall. If Sopel and the Vandals earn this last win it will be the first time the Vandals have had a winning record all spring after a rough 0-4 start.
The Vandals have a lot to prove this next week and have earned the right to prove it. Regardless of the outcome of the April 20 match at 9 a.m. in Logan, the Vandals will finish No. 4 in the WAC on the season with a shot at the title on April 26.
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at [email protected]