Broncos Edged By Rebels 4-2

Friday, April 2

Boise, Idaho

2:00 P.M. MT

Boise State

UNLV

4/2/2021 8:49:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

The Boise State women's tennis team fell to UNLV Saturday in a close 4-2 match at Appleton Tennis Center.

BOISE, Idaho – Pauline Ernstberger and Vanessa Timm each earned singles victories, but the Boise State women's tennis team ultimately fell to UNLV 4-2 in a back-and-forth affair Friday afternoon at Appleton Tennis Center.

"Today's match was an incredibly hard-fought one on both sides," said head coach Beck Roghaar. "We showed a ton of grit, heart and resolve to put ourselves back in the match, but in the end we couldn't grab that decisive momentum in a couple of key spots that could have carried through."

The Rebels wasted no time putting their mark on the match, winning doubles matches on courts one and three go up on the Broncos 1-0 heading into singles play.

Timm was able to get the Broncos back on track quickly, dominating her match on court four against the Rebels' Connie Li and winning 6-2, 6-2. UNLV would respond with a straight-set victory of their own on court three to take back the lead and move one step closer to clinching the match.

Ernstberger stepped up big for the Blue and Orange, winning 6-4, 6-2 on court two over En-Pei Huang to even the score yet again. Ana Conde Vendrell was able to push her court-six match to a third set, but was ultimately bested by Aura Fang 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 as the Rebels moved in position to clinch.

All eyes moved to court two where an all-out battle was taking place between Boise State's Joana Baptista and UNLV's Izumi Asano. Baptista was able to take set one 7-5, but Asano battled back in set two to win a tiebreaker and take the set 7-6(4) to push it to a third. Asano jumped out to a massive 5-2 lead in the third, but Baptista dug in and fought back to force another tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Asuno again jumped out to a lead that put Baptista in a 6-3 hole. The Bronco's redshirt-freshman again battled back to tie it at 6-6, but after exchanging a few blows Asuno came out on top, winning the tiebreaker 10-8 and putting the Broncos away.

"Our team is learning at every corner right now," said Roghaar. "Everything they take in is an experience that is going to help us down the line. They're really good at learning quickly and applying. The expectation is that we'll come back tomorrow a little better than we were today and will be ready to battle again."

The loss brought to an end a 6-match win streak for the Broncos and was their first conference loss of the season. Tomorrow offers a chance for the team to bounce back as they host San Diego State at 10 a.m. at Appleton Tennis Center. The match will be the team's final at home this season and will also be Timm's senior day.