PHOENIX, Arizona– The Bengals men's tennis team entered the Big Sky Conference tournament as the 3 seed taking on 6th seeded Montana. The Griz defeated the Bengals 5-2 in their matchup earlier this season.
Beginning in the doubles matches, the first duo for ISU, playing in the #1 doubles spot, was Victor Sklenka and Valentino De Pellegrin, where the first team all-conference doubles tandem would defeat Bittner/Stoeger with ease, 6-1. In the #3 doubles match, second team all-conference duo, Hiroki Fujita and Ege Cankus, would prove they deserve the honors, downing Wiger-Nordas/Zhang handily, 6-2. With the win the Bengals would secure the doubles point, and head into singles play up 1-0.
With singles underway, the Bengals were looking to close this match out early. In the #2 singles match Andreas Kramer would earn a quick 6-2, 6-2 victory over UM's B. Wiger-Nordas, shortly followed by Wikus Robbertse extending his conference leading singles win count (18) with a 6-3, 6-1 win over C. Zhang in the #6 singles match. Idaho State found themselves leading 3-0 now, needing just one more win to clinch their ticket to the Big Sky Conference semi-finals. The next Bengal up was Victor Sklenka in the #3 singles match, and he would deliver, winning 6-4, 6-0 over F. Perez, giving Idaho State the 4-0 sweep over Montana.
Head coach Oliver Good shared his thoughts on his team's first round showing, "It was a whole team performance today. We set the tone with our intent in the doubles matches, and it carried through into singles. We'll rest up now and get ready for Sacramento State tomorrow."
The Bengals advance to the semi-final round where the 2nd seeded Sacramento State Hornets await them. In their meeting earlier this season the Bengals fell to the Hornets 2-5 in Sacramento, CA. The Bengals and Hornets will begin their match at 9 AM MT, and you can follow along live here.