Idaho defeats Southern Utah for another BSC win, loses nonconference matchup to UNLV
For its fifth and sixth matches over spring break, Idaho hit the road again to take on Southern Utah in a conference match and a nonconference matchup with UNLV.
Already sitting at 3-1 in Big Sky play, the Vandals destroyed Southern Utah 7-0 Thursday. The Thunderbirds were unable to win a single match in singles or doubles against the Vandals. Junior Odon Barta won the No. 1 singles match, freshman Felipe Fonseca won the No. 2 match, senior Cristobal Ramos Salazar the No. 3 match and junior Jackson Varney the No. 4 singles match. Freshman Mark Kovacs won the No. 5 match and senior Alberto Sanz the No. 6 match to round out singles.
File photo by Nathan Romans | Argonaut
Junior Jackson Varney returns the ball during practice Feb. 4.
Idaho continued to dominate in doubles play. Varney and Ramos Salazar defeated Ben Spencer and Brandon Olcott in the No. 1 doubles match while Barta and Fonseca won the No. 2 doubles match over Troy Benson and Taylor Wilko. Southern Utah won the No. 3 doubles match.
“The guys played great against (Southern Utah), getting another conference win after the tough (Wichita State) match,” Idaho coach Jeff Beaman said.
The win snapped a two-game skid for Idaho, but against UNLV the Vandals found themselves back in the loss column. Varney and Ramos Salazar lost the No. 1 doubles match and Barta and Fonseca lost the No. 2 match. Kovacs and Sanz lost in the No. 3 match.
The Vandals dropped the first three singles matches to finish, so the rest of the matches went unfinished and UNLV took the win 4-0.
Idaho competed in six matches in the first eight days of spring break, going 3-3 but 3-1 in Big Sky play. The fatigue clearly played a factor as the Vandals lost three of the last four.
“Six matches in eight days is 29 percent of your schedule in that short time, including van travel for matches in five different states.” Beaman said. “But this was part of our progression plan with scheduling of pushing and seeing how the guys react and deal with physical and mental stresses that got harder and harder as the spring evolved.”
Beaman said he doesn’t see this being much of a problem in the future as the rest of the season has more evenly spaced matches with more rest time.
Idaho continues an eight-day break before being back in action Saturday at Weber State. The Vandals take on Idaho State in Pocatello, Idaho, Sunday. Following those matches, the Vandals play their first home games of the season April 11 against Montana and North Dakota in a doubleheader.
Ben Evensen can be reached at [email protected]