LEWISTON, IDAHO - The University of Idaho men's tennis team pulled off a victory versus local rival LCSC, 5-2, to begin its 2004 spring season.

This first win of the season, despite not winning any of the doubles matches, were almost all long matches, some even stretching to three sets.

"It was a good first-match performance," tennis coach Katrina Perlman said. "I think the team, in general, was happy; it was a good effort by all of them."

At No. 1 singles, LCSC's Dimitri Verabyou and UI's Brad Lum-Tucker battled it out, each convincingly winning a set, but it was Verabyou who pulled off the victory with a final score of 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

Easy wins came at the No. 2, 4 and 6 spots. Chris Faulman beat Ari Zaslow, 6-4, 6-2. Fabian Dummett put away Guilherme Martins, 6-0, 6-4. And, James Cromwell defeated Andy Hunt, 6-1 6-4.

The No. 3 and 5 singles spots featured come-from-behind wins. At the No. 3 spot, Hector Mucharraz was shut out in the first set by Borja Molas, 0-6, but came back to soundly win 6-3, 6-4. For No. 5, Seth Banks also lost his first set against Marek Kufel, 5-7. Banks sealed his victory by winning the next two sets, 6-4 and 6-4.

"It was a really good match; it was really hard fought," Perlman said. "It's always nice to come off a win at the beginning of the season."

LCSC took the doubles point by not allowing UI to win any of the matches. Dimitri Verabyou and Borja Molas barely took the match from Lum-Tucker and Faulman, 9-8.

"One or two points made the difference, it could have gone either way," Perlman said.

For the other doubles matches, LCSC didn't keep the matches as close. Zaslow and Martins defeated UI's Banks and Dummett, 8-4. McKeague and Kufel defeated Mucharraz and Cromwell, 8-5.

Next weekend, the men's team travels to Oregon to take on University of Oregon and University of Portland.