MALIBU, Calif.—Idaho women's tennis fell at No. 12 Pepperdine, 4-0, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center on Friday. The Vandals finish the season 15-7, after making their fifth straight NCAA Tournament.

"We played a very tough team," head coach Babar Akbar explained. "They [Pepperdine] are going to go very far in this tournament. The score does not show it but I think our girls played very well."

The host Waves got out the early lead, after a delayed start. The first match of the day between Denver and Kansas ran long, pushing back the scheduled start an hour and forty-five minutes.

Pepperdine's two ranked doubles pairs helped put away the Vandals. No. 13 Mayar Sherif and Luisa Stefani registered at 6-1 win over Marianna Petrei and Maria Tavares at No. 1. No. 76 Evgeniya Levashova and Dzina Milovanovic closed the point with a 6-1 win over Laura Spataro and Shion Watabe at No. 2.

The singles courts followed the same direction. Pepperdine's lineup of five ranked players proved too much for Idaho to overcome. Sherif, the No. 22 ranked player by the ITA, recorded the first singles win. She went 6-1, 6-0, over Spataro at No. 3. No. 91 Laura Gulbe quickly followed up with a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 5. No. 54 Levashova picked up the clincher for the Waves with a 6-0, 6-1 decision at No. 4.

The battle between the ranked at No. 1 was left unfinished. No. 27 Stefani and No. 31 Petrei went head-to-head on the top court. Petrei kept it close in the first set, playing to a 3-3 tie. Stefani would close out the first 6-3. The match was left 1-1 in the second.

Tavares and Marta Magalhães were also in action at No. 2 and No. 6, respectively, when the match concluded.

"Nobody likes to end the season with a loss," Akbar added. "This season was fantastic as a whole. We wanted to prove that we could go back out and win the Big Sky again and we did."

The Vandals return all but one player for the 2018-19 season. Idaho loses senior Lucia Badillos in its quest for a sixth straight Big Sky championship.

"Lucia was a fantastic player for us," Akbar said. "What we will miss is what she brought to the team as a captain. That is going to be hard to replace. Some of these girls are going to have to step up into that senior role. Overall, I'm glad to have six players that know what it takes to win the conference back in the lineup next year. That is a good place to be."

The season will continue for Petrei, who will compete as an individual at the NCAA Singles Championships at Wake Forest. She became Idaho's first singles player to qualify for the field of 64 and will be back in action on Wednesday, May 23.