Missoula, Mont. – The Eastern Washington University men's tennis team dropped road matches to Big Sky Conference foes Idaho, Montana State and Montana this past week, but remains in contention for a spot in this year's Big Sky Tournament.

Despite the setbacks, EWU head coach Steve Clark was able to put the week in perspective knowing the Eagles remain without arguably the best player in the conference in junior Robert Dula.

"It's a difficult task to still be short-handed without Robert, but the guys have fought very hard and I continue to see many improvements weekly," Clark said. "Some guys were forced into higher positions in the lineup and had to play singles more than they have in the past, but they are better for it."

Eastern fell to Idaho, 7-0, back on Wednesday, April 6, before dropping a tough match to Montana State, 5-2, on Friday, April 8. The week ended with a 6-1 defeat at Montana on Saturday, April 9.

Against Montana State, the doubles tandem of sophomore Vuk Vuckovic and senior Eduardo Bringold defeated Kellen Bates and Mateus Ceolin, 7-5, in the No. 2 spot, while Bringold also recorded a singles win over Ceolin in straight sets (6-1, 6-4). Junior Rendell Burghart also recorded a singles win, taking down MSU's Dylan Harvala in the No. 6 spot, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 10-7.

Junior Wacil Bendjelti notched a singles win against Montana on Saturday, topping the Grizzlies' Yannick Schmidl, 6-3, 6-4. Bringold and Burghart also showed some impressive resolve against UM, taking their respective matches to three sets.

"Our energy Saturday was some of the best I've seen from the team in my time here," said Clark. "They jogged between games and were supporting each other very well. The match against Montana could have gone either way had we had more success at key points during the contest."

Eastern concludes its season at home against Weber State on Saturday, April 16, starting at 1 p.m. PST.