Regular season victories are nice but finishing out the season is what matters most.
The University of Idaho Men’s Tennis Team clinched a share of the Big Sky Conference title after sweeping Portland State 7-0 on April 23, but the Vandals are not celebrating yet with the approaching conference tournament starting April 28.
“I am very proud of what (this team) has accomplished this far, but we are not done yet,” said men’s tennis coach Daniel Hangstefer in a press release. “We have business to take care of.”
The Vandals had a rough start to the season, coming away with only four wins in their first 14 matches of 2022. That difficult schedule early on was a challenge but a good test for the team heading into conference play.
“I put together one of the toughest schedules that they have ever seen, and they continued to battle all season,” said Hangstefer. “We opened the conference season with a loss, but we came together as a team, and it pushed us to get better in every match.”
Following that opening defeat at Weber State on March 19, the Idaho men won the next seven matches in a row. Notably, the Vandals became the first Big Sky team in seven years to take down Northern Arizona in the Walkup Skydome when they won 4-3 on March 27.
Idaho’s 11-10 overall record doesn’t fully reflect the success they experienced this season. They got up after getting knocked down, and they won a share of the Big Sky Championship.
But that ‘we’re not done yet’ mentality was the key to the Vandals coming home from Phoenix with the outright title of Big Sky Champions, beating the Montana Grizzlies on April 30 and the Montana State Bobcats on April 30 in the Big Sky Championship tournament.
The Vandals will now head to Austin Texas to face the No. 12 ranked Texas Longhorns in the first round of the NCAA Championships at 8 a.m. on May 6
Shea Mattson can be reached at [email protected].