The Idaho men’s tennis team competed in the Gonzaga Bulldog Classic Oct. 28-30 in Spokane. The Vandals ended the season strong with a double titles.
“Overall it was a great weekend,” Idaho head coach Abid Akbar said in a news release. “It was a great way to end the fall season.”
Junior Mark Kovacs and freshman Carlos Longhi Neto began an undefeated run with a narrow win over Portland’s Felix Fan and Ethan Ogard 8-7.
The duo faced Seattle’s Matt Alderson and Trenton Neild next and won 8-2. The win took the pair to the semifinals, where they defeated Montana’s Peter Mimnagh-Flemming and Victory Casadevall 8-5.
In the finals, Idaho faced another Montana team and delivered an 8-4 victory.
“Mark and Carlos winning this week at Gonzaga after previously winning at EWU just shows how good of a team they are,” Akbar said. “To be honest they are not playing their best right now either. I know they can play at a lot higher level than they did last week. That gives me so much confidence. They can make some improvements and become an even stronger team.”
Sophomore Lucas Coutinho and freshman Esteban Santibanez each finished 1-1.
Freshmen Kooper Krow and Guilherme Scarpelli lost their first matches and recovered in the consolation bracket.
Their two consecutive wins brought the team into the finals against Portland State’s Nathan Boneil and Tommy Edwards. Krow and Scarpelli eventually fell 6-2 in the final.
In singles, Kovacs won his first match against Seattle’s John Stormans 7-6, 6-3.
His next opponent proved to be more difficult. Kovacs won the first set. His opponent, Gonzaga’s Vincent Rettke battled back and won the second set. Kovacs persevered in the tie breaker and won 6-2.
Portland State’s Nathan Boniel defeated Kovacs 6-1, 7-5 in the quaterfinals.
Boniel would go on to be the champion of that tournament flight.
Longhi Neto and Sanitbanez competed in the same flight as Kovacs, but saw less success. Both players earned an early victory, but lost their next matches and finished 1-1.
Scarpelli and Krow competed in the B flight, but failed to move forward.
Akbar said he was proud of his team’s effort and how each player is equally competitive.
“I feel like we have a lot of depth as a team,” Akbar said. “Our No. 6 guy will beat our No. 1 guy in practice. We do not know exactly who will play where in the spring, but the guys in the lower part of the lineup are very close to the guys in the top of the lineup. That is a great sign.”
The men’s team will take a break until the spring season. The women’s team will compete in the Gonzaga Individual Tournament Friday through Sunday in Spokane.
Sophomore Marianna Petrei will look to extend her winning start to the season after upsetting ranked teams from the Pac-12 at the Oracle/ITA Masters Tournament Oct.13-16.
Brandon Hill can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @brandonmtnhill