Idaho’s men’s tennis team traveled to Las Vegas to compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Mountain Regional Championship.
Junior Felipe Fonesca had the best showing for the Vandals in the tournament. As the only ranked player from Idaho, Fonesca defeated Kyle Pease of Northern Colorado in two close sets.
He went on the face against Pedro Platzeck of Boise State. Fonesca failed to get an early lead, but won the next two sets 6-3 and 6-1.
His next opponent was second ranked David Micevski from Utah. Fonesca won the first set 6-4. Micevski took control and claimed the next two sets 6-3 and 6-2.
Fonesca took the consolation bracket by storm, beating three straight opponents. However, he too fell victim to Fernandez Del Valle and lost the quarterfinals match.
Freshman Guilherme Scarpelli lost his first set 6-1 against Utah’s Joe Woolley. He caught a second wind in the next set and brought the score to 6-6 before losing 7-5.
Sophomore Lucas Coutinho saw more success. He defeated Ryland McDermott of Boise State in a tight match. Coutinho struggled early and dropped the first set 2-6. He won the next two sets 6-3, 6-3.
Coutinho advanced to the round of 64, but lost to No. 4 Alex Cozbinov of UNLV.
In the consolation, Coutino defeated Harun Ajanovic of Northern Arizona before failing to get past Pedro Fernandez Del Valle of Denver.
Freshman Esteban Santibanez faced off against Kevin Chaue of UNLV. Santibanez prevailed 6-3, 6-3 before falling to New Mexico State’s Christofer Goncalvas.
He continued in the consolation bracket, but lost his first match to Utah’s Benjamin Heck.
Freshman Carlos Longhi Neto fought against Weber State’s Stefan Cooper. Cooper won the first set by a narrow margin. Longhi Neto claimed the second set and fell 6-4 in the tiebreaker.
In the consolation tournament, he defeated Air Force’s Dillon Launius in two sets of 6-3 and 6-1. He went on to face Fernandez Del Valle. Longhi Neto won the first set in a close 7-5 battle. He lost the second set 6-0.
Junior Mark Kovacs defeated Sam Tullis of Brigham-Young 2-1. He went on to beat Kris Van Wyk of Weber State before falling the Alex Gasson of Denver.
In consolation play, Kovacs debuted against Andrew Nakajima from Utah State. Kovacs won, but lost to Jack Swindells, also of Utah State.
Kovacs competed in doubles alongside Longhi Neto. The pair beat Northern Arizona 8-2 and UNLV 8-5. They fell to New Mexico 8-5 after.
Fonesca and Scarpelli could not defeat their New Mexico opponents. Santibanez lost early against Utah.
Coutinho and Santibanez lost their first doubles match and defeated four teams in the consolation. In the final rounds of the consolation, they defeated teammates Kovacs and Longhi Neto.
Idaho competes in the Bulldog Classic Friday at Gonzaga in Spokane.
Brandon Hill can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @brandonmtnhill