In a tournament that included many Big Sky Conference teams, the Portland State women’s tennis team looked to set a tone for the upcoming winter season. The GU Hidden Dual was hosted by Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Along with PSU and Gonzaga, Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, Montana State and Seattle University competed from Nov 7–9.
The tournament followed a hidden dual format, which meant that the set of three doubles and six singles from each school would play different teams each day of the tournament, with each school facing each other once in singles and doubles.
In PSU’s fourth and final tournament of the fall season, they started off with a great win. In the opening matches the doubles played tournament host Gonzaga. The duo of sophomores Tracy Dong and Sabina Preda were victorious in their opening doubles match, 8–3 over Gonzaga at line two. In line one doubles Dané Vorster and Siena Peri went down in a tiebreaker 7–8. Line three saw Kelsey Frey and Megan Govi also drop a close 6–8 match.
In the second round of matches, PSU faced off against Big Sky Conference newcomer Idaho. Coach Jay Sterling kept line one of doubles the same and changed line two to Dong with Govi and line three to Preda with Frey. Line one overcame their first loss to win 8–5. Lines two and three however dropped their matches 1–8 and 4–8.
The final matches of day one were played against Seattle University in singles. Vorster played at line one, followed by Peri, Dong, Preda, Frey and Govi. The Vikings dominated in singles with wins in lines one, two, three, four and six. Vorster overcame a set deficit to come back and win over Seattle’s Kelli Woodman. Newcomers Peri and Dong won in straight sets. Mainstays Preda and Govi also won in straight sets to help PSU close out a strong first day.
This momentum would carry into day two as Sterling put his winning doubles pairs from day one in to face Big Sky rival Montana. Vorster with Peri and Dong with Preda would be lines one and two, with Govi and Frey up third. The lineup gave PSU their first team doubles win as Vorster and Peri won 8–6 while Dong and Preda prevailed 8–7 in the tiebreaker.
In the final match before the last day of competition, the Vikings faced another Big Sky rival, Montana State, in singles. The lineup stayed the same other than Frey and Govi switching spots for lines five and six. After seeing Vorster and Peri—who suffered an injury—go down in singles, the Vikings responded. Dong, Govi and Frey all came up with wins to give their team a draw.
In PSU’s final match of the tournament they played Dam Cup rival Eastern Washington in singles. Without the injured Peri, they were able to win lines 2–6 to close out an impressive tournament. The Vikings had a 3–3 team record on the weekend, but won at least five matches each day for a 17–10 record over the three days. The team looked ready to take on the Big Sky Conference when the winter conference slate begins in January.
