For the second time in two years, the Vandals are Big Sky men’s tennis champions. Sophomore Francisco Gay sealed the deal with a 7-5 victory after being down 5-3. Seniors Bruno Casino and Francisco Bason finished out their final season strong with wins over graduate student Facundo Tumosa and freshman Maikel De Boes. The other Vandal to win was junior Mario Duron, who beat sophomore Daniel Torres 6-2 and 7-5.
Idaho started out the week hot with a 4-0 win over the University of Montana. After they won the doubles point, Idaho only had to finish three singles matches. Bascon and Duron won in two sets while freshman Taiyo Kurata got it in three.
On day two, Idaho took on only one of two Big Sky teams to beat them during the regular season. Sacramento State also came into the tournament with two conference losses. The Hornets took the doubles point, but the Vandals avenged their earlier loss with a 4-3 win. Bascon, Gay, Casino and junior Matteo Masala each took their match to advance to the championship.
Day three was another revenge game as Idaho took on Northern Arizona. The Lumberjacks came into this match ranked #71 in the nation. As the one seed in the tournament, there was only one team stopping them from the championship. After beating Weber State 4-2 the day before, Idaho State ended up losing 4-1 to NAU.
After senior Alexander Groves beat Masala, there was some confusion on the website tracking the score. Sophomore Piotr Galus was awarded a point while he was still facing Gay, and it showed that NAU had won. However, the mistake was quickly fixed, and rather than losing 6-3, Gay was only down 5-3. He then rallied for four straight points to beat Galus and win the Big Sky Championship for Idaho.
Not only did Idaho win the Big Sky championship for the second-straight season, but they did so in similar fashion. Last year, Casino beat Jamieson Nathan of Montana State to give the Vandals a 4-3 victory. Just like last year, the Vandals will continue their journey towards history at the NCAA tournament in May.
James Taurman-Aldrich can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jamesaldrich25