A successful regular season came to an end for the Idaho women’s tennis team Sunday, as the Vandals dropped the season finale at Montana, 4-3.
“Montana is a really good team,” Idaho coach Jeff Beaman said. “They dominated the Big Sky, won the regular season and played great at home. We put ourselves in an 0-3 hole and that’s tough to dig out of.”
Seniors Vicky Lozano, Almudena Sanz and sophomore Rita Bermudez each won singles matches, but the team came out slow during the doubles matches.
“We fought back, woke up a little bit, made it competitive and had our chances,” Beaman said. “That’s the first time I’ve seen our team come out that flat during doubles, but I’m not at all worried about that going into the conference tournament.”
Despite the loss, the Vandals (17-5) earned the No. 1 seed in the WAC Championships in Las Cruces, N.M. Idaho has a first round bye and will play the winner of Chicago State vs. Kansas City on Saturday.
“Either team works,” Beaman said. “The big thing is we beat one of those two teams to get to the finals. It’ll be good to have that live competition to hopefully get us ready for the final.”
The Vandals have yet to play Chicago State this year. Idaho beat Kansas City 7-0 on Feb. 22.
Conor Gleason can be reached at [email protected]