Women’s tennis: Idaho’s season ends with NCAA tournament loss at Pepperdine

MALIBU, Calif. – Idaho’s season came to an end Friday with a 4-0 setback to eighth-ranked Pepperdine to open the NCAA women’s tennis championships at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.

The Vandals (19-9), Big Sky Conference champions appearing in their third consecutive NCAA tournament, quickly lost the doubles point as the Waves (22-2) competed with the 19th- and 26th-ranked teams in the country.

Idaho freshman Marianna Petrei broke to a 2-1 lead in the first set of No. 1 singles against Luisa Stefani, the sixth-ranked player in the country, but Stefani won 6-3, 6-2. Petrei, the Big Sky’s Most Valuable Player, finished the season 22-3.

“Pepperdine is a very good team,” Vandals coach Mariana Cobra said. “They played smart and fair. We got outplayed in doubles, which did not happen very often this season. We were forced to try to come from behind, which is always tough against a good team like that.”

Pepperdine will meet USC on Saturday.