The Idaho women’s tennis team wasn’t going to let the weather advisory warning ruin an improbable season.
Photos by Jared Williams, Western Athletic Conference | Courtesy
Idaho Director of Tennis Jeff Beaman gets doused with water following the men’s team championship victory which capped Idaho’s dual-championship day.
The Vandals swept Kansas City 4-0 Saturday, and beat rival New Mexico State 4-1 on its home court Sunday to earn an automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA tournament on May 9, 10 and 11.
“We had strong performances both days,” Idaho coach Jeff Beaman said. “We played New Mexico State recently, basically to prepare for this conference tournament. We lost the first time we played them during the regular season, but it really motivated the team and we learned what we needed to do and they did it today.”
The Vandals lost their match to NMSU on April 13, but Beaman said the difference Sunday was that they learned from their mistakes.
The doubles matches weren’t played Sunday due to the weather, and would have only been played for tiebreaking purposes.
Senior Vicky Lozano won 6-3, 6-2 at No. 1 singles and Galina Bykova defeated NMSU’s Denise Van Der Ben, 6-1, 6-4 at No. 3.
Lozano won her match in the face of 35-60 mph winds in Las Cruces, N.M.
“I used the wind to my favor,” Lozano said. “In a way, I think I intimidated the other girl. I did what I had to do. I just did my game — volleys, slices, good serves, and that work perfectly. ”
Beaman, who oversees both the women’s and men’s programs as the Director of Tennis, was coaching both teams at the same time Sunday. The women will join the men’s team, as they both qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
“I was running around all over the place,” Beaman said. “To coach two matches at the same time in a very large facility is hard. Our assistants really did a good job.”
“I almost lost my voice, because I was cheering so much for the girls and guys,” Lozano said. “I was screaming too loud, the whole day we’ve been celebrating.”
The winds forced Sunday’s matches to be played earlier than originally scheduled.
“Normally, we cannot play if the winds are 20 or more sustained for college tennis,” Beaman said. “But due to there being no indoor backup, the matches happened to be played for a team to qualify for the NCAA (Championships), so they moved the matches earlier where the winds are generally lighter here.”
Beaman said the seniors on the team have helped changed the face of the program at Idaho, especially after losing its coach two days before the season started — when Myriam Sopel left to take the coaching job at UTEP.
“It really shows the character of the team, persevering after losing their coach two days before the season started,” Beaman said. “Vicky, Ale, Almu are our seniors and have really been a huge part of this team continuing to take a step to the next level every year. They’ve put in a lot hard work and continued effort. It’s great to see them go out on top.”
From here, the Vandals will wait until Tuesday morning to see where they’ll play in the NCAA Championship. Beaman said Idaho will likely be matched up against a top six ranked school.
Conor Gleason can be reached at [email protected]