SACRAMENTO -- Sacramento State picked up singles wins from Hermont Legaspi, Rudolfs Aksenoks and Jan Silva, but it was not enough in a 4-3 loss to Idaho on Sunday afternoon.
The Hornets, who were playing without two players that would have been in the singles lineup, dropped to 2-9 overall. Idaho improved to 4-4 overall. Although Idaho is a member of the Big Sky Conference, today's loss does not count as a conference match. Sacramento State is in the Big Sky's South Division with Northern Arizona, Idaho State and Weber State. Idaho is in the North Division with Montana, Montana State, Eastern Washington and Portland State. Only inter-division matchups count as conference matches.
Sacramento State was playing without freshman Mark Keki and sophomore Carlos Rodriguez because of injury. The Keki loss is a big one as he plays at No. 2 in the team's lineup and has won five straight singles matches. Rodriguez, who would also be in the top six, has missed every match this year with injury.
Sacramento State, which has started four freshmen in the singles lineup in every match this year, has lost a number of close matches thus far. Today was the team's third 4-3 loss this season, which includes a 4-3 defeat to Northern Arizona on Wednesday in the Big Sky opener. The Hornets have also lost three matches by 4-2 scores this season.
Idaho won what turned out to be a huge doubles point, winning at Nos. 2 and 3 in the lineup. Legaspi and Liam Liles won at No. 1 by a 6-3 score.
Sacramento State tied the match at 1-1 when Silva won at No. 5 by a 6-1, 7-5 score over Vivek Ramesh. After the Vandals took a brief 2-1 lead when Michael Vizcarra fell at No. 2, Aksenoks tied things at 2-2 with a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 4.
Idaho, however, clinched things with wins at No. 3 over Liam Liles (0-6, 6-3, 6-2) and No. 6 over Seiya Duran (6-3, 6-3). Legapi won at No. 1 (5-7, 6-3, 10-5) to provide the final 4-3 score.
The Hornets will play the last leg of its 12-match homestand to open the season when they play non-conference foe Air Force on Thursday at noon.
