Cheney, Wash. - The Eastern Washington university men's tennis team concluded a tough week of extensive competition, playing a four match stretch in Dallas, Texas, including a 4-3 victory over UTPB (Friday, Feb. 26). The team now returns home to meet Big Sky Conference opponents Idaho State (Saturday, Mar. 5) and Northern Arizona (Sunday, Mar. 6).
Eastern currently owns a 7-5 record in duals, and sits at 3-0 in league play, good for a first place tie with Sacramento State in the Big Sky standings.
Starting at 3 p.m. PST, EWU will take on Idaho State (2-6, 0-1 Big Sky) in its first match of the new week. The Eagles will be looking for revenge in this matchup, as they lost 3-4 to Idaho State last season. ISU recently defeated Seattle University on Sunday, Feb. 21, winning 4-3. Playing at the No. 1 spot for the Bengals is the junior from Sigtuna, Sweden, William Edin.
Eastern will then host Northern Arizona (4-7, 1-1 Big Sky) the following day, starting at 11 a.m. PST. NAU just suffered a tough non-conference loss to Loyola Marymount, 5-2, on Tuesday, Mar. 1. Freshman Lucas Taylor was recently awarded the Big Sky Conference player of the week honors for his play in wins over Air Force and Montana. He is 6-1 at No. 2 in singles, and has won five straight matches.
Last week's road trip consisted of a flurry of non-conference matchups, as Eastern followed the first day's victory against UTPB, by dropping consecutive matches against George Washington and the hosts, Southern Methodist, on Saturday, Feb. 27, then finalized the trip on Sunday, Feb. 28, with a loss against No. 66 Abilene Christian.
In the 4-3 victory over UTPB, Eastern took the lead first, earning the doubles point. Junior Robert Dula and freshman Victor Pereira defeated Raul Stevens and Cole Davis 6-3, and the team of sophomore Vuk Vuckovic and junior Wacil Bendjelti earned a 6-3 victory over Jordan Minjoot and Daniel Colmenares.
In the singles competition, Robert Dula suffered his first dual loss of the season when he was injured against Raul Steven during the second set, and was not able to finish the match. He was forced to retire the match down 6-0, 1-0. In the No. 2 spot, Pereira dominated Davis 6-1, 6-2, and in the No. 4, Bendjelti took down Calo Aguiar 6-2, 6-2. The final singles win came from Vuckovic in a three-set battle against Colmenares 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
With its No. 1 player, and two time Big Sky player of the week winner, Robert Dula out with injury, EWU struggled to find momentum in the subsequent matches. The Eagles were swept 7-0 by both George Washington and SMU. Against its first ranked opponent of the season, No. 66 Abilene Christian, Eastern lost 1-6. The only point came from a singles victory by senior Eduardo Bringold in the No. 3 spot, taking down Jason Proctor after in a long battle where the third set lasted 22 games. The match finished 6-3, 2-6, 12-10 in favor of Bringold.
