Idaho men’s tennis faced a back and forth week with back to back action on Wednesday and Thursday.
Junior Carlos Longhi Neto and senior Mark Covacs fist-bump after winning a rally during Senior Day against Eastern Washington University at the Idaho Tennis Courts Wednesday.
Idaho vs Montana State
The Vandals started off hot Wednesday winning big against Montana State 6-1, to push closer to a No. 1 seed in the upcoming Big Sky tournament.
Idaho jumped to an early lead after winning three straight doubles points to get a 1-0 lead. Senior Felipe Fonseca and sophomore Guilherme Scarpelli had things rolling with clinching a 6-2 win at No. 3, while sophomore Esteban Santibanez and junior Lucas Coutinho finished with a 6-3 win at No. 2 to give Idaho a second win.
While the Vandals were dominating on the doubles side, Idaho showed their strength throughout the single matches as well. The Vandals won the first three singles matches, to clinching a win with a 4-0 lead.
Junior Carlos Longhi Neto had back to back wins at No. 2 to give Idaho a 2-0 lead. Fonseca picked up his 11th win of the season after winning 7-5 and 6-0 at No.4. Scarpelli finished the night with picking up a win in three sets.
Senior Mark Kovacs and Coutinho both picked up individual wins on Wednesday as well to make it a proud day for Vandal men’s tennis.
The day gave Idaho a 7-0 record in conference play and a chance to clinch a top-seed on Saturday with wins needed at Montana and Southern Utah.
Idaho vs Montana
Facing opponents on back to back days, Idaho men’s tennis fell to Montana 5-2 to suffer their first conference loss of the season.
Montana was able to put Idaho on the rocks early by winning on the doubles side. After losing their first doubles match, senior Mark Kovacs and junior Carlos Longhi Neto tied things up with a 6-4 win at No. 1. Junior Lucas Coutinho and sophomore Esteban Santibanez had a rough battle at No. 2 but were ultimately defeated by Max Korkh and Yannick Schmidl of Montana.
Things were looking better for Idaho to start singles, with sophomore Guilherme Scarpelli getting an early win for the Vandals, defeating Montana’s Ignacio Tejerina 6-4, and 6-2 at court No. 3.
Montana started to find a rhythm quickly, after breaking the tie and winning at 1, 4, and 2 to clinch the match win 4-1. Junior Lucas Coutinho gave Idaho a point in the end defeating Ludvig Hallgren 3-6, 6-2, and 10-5.
Idaho remains first in the Big Sky with a 7-1 record, but in a harder place to obtain a number one overall seed.
Idaho returns home Saturday to play Southern Utah at 2 p.m.
Chris Deremer can be reached at [email protected] or on twitter @Cderemer_VN