The last time the Boise State men’s tennis team was able to play was 320 days ago. Not being able to play for almost a year due to COVID-19, the Broncos opened their season with a win over the University of Montana Grizzlies on Friday, Jan. 22 in Boise, Idaho.
The dual campaign began as a competitive match in doubles, but the Broncos pulled ahead to win 2-1. One of the winning duos were redshirt sophomore Lukas Ridemar and freshman Caden Moortgat. Ridemar and Moortgat had a 2-1 win over Montana.
After tying the first two sets 1-1, redshirt junior Blake Bayldon and redshirt sophomore Simon Arca Costas won the final 7-5.
“I am super pleased with the win. Montana is a well coached team, they’re always tough,” said Head Coach Kristian Widen. “We came out and executed really well and did what we talked about before the match. I was a little surprised that we won that big, but it’s because the guys were ready, even with the long break. We have a team that wants to win, so they worked extremely hard for today.”
Heading into singles, Arca Costas claimed his 41st career win while at Boise State. He led his team with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over his opponent.
With the 2-0 advantage, redshirt junior Kyryll Kryvchun led the Broncos in singles while taking the no. 1 position. His two-set win was his 23rd career victory at Boise State.
“I thought it was fantastic from the start,” said Kryvchun. “The guys were ready to play, we had great energy and we were all focused. I think there was a lot of excitement about having our first match in over 300 days. Personally, I just loved having the new guys there, they were so intuitive and so intense from the start. It was crazy to see them all get wins in their first matches. It was just amazing how everyone played and we executed really well, we did everything we were told to do and that’s why we got the win.”
To close out the match, redshirt senior Wyatt Demulling, Bayldon and redshirt sophomore Lawrence Sciglitano all won to contribute to the Broncos win of 6-1.
Sciglitano and his opponent were tied through four sets, 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (2-7). Sciglitano won the tiebreaker 10-4 to get the final point for the Broncos.
“I was concerned with the focus after not playing that much since last March, but a lot of these guys have played individual tournaments on their own since then. So, I knew most of them were going to be ready,” Widen said. “We talked a lot about the team supporting each other, something that we haven’t seen or done since last year and they did a great job of that.”
The Broncos will take on the Grand Canyon University Lopes at home on Sunday, Jan. 24.
Photo by Mackenzie Hudson | The Arbiter
