The Portland State men’s tennis team signed off from its four-game weekend after earning one win and suffering three losses. Over a span of three days, the Vikings played four teams in two cities, during which they won their duel against conference opponents Montana State but lost to UC Davis, Idaho and Oregon.
Long and winding road
The Portland State men’s tennis team signed off from its four-game weekend after earning one win and suffering three losses. Over a span of three days, the Vikings played four teams in two cities, during which they won their duel against conference opponents Montana State but lost to UC Davis, Idaho and Oregon.
Portland State began the long weekend on Friday with a matchup against UC Davis at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center in North Portland. Despite two wins by the doubles pair of juniors Chris Rice and Sean Eberle over Nick Lopez and Hunter Lee (8¬–2) and junior Alex VanDerschelden over Chris Aria (6–2, 6–2), the Vikings fell to the Aggies, 5–2.
On Saturday, the Viks returned to North Portland to face a familiar foe in the Montana State Bobcats, who Portland State had not defeated since the 2007–08 season.
Going into the match, then-head coach Brian Parrott said the meeting with the Bobcats “will be the most important match of the weekend.”
The Vikings rose to the occasion and won two of their three doubles games and four of their six singles matches to defeat Montana State, 5–2. The duo of Rice and Eberle once again won their game, this time besting MSU’s Corey Smith and Pawel Turzanski, 9–7. Meanwhile, Portland State juniors Matt Erickson and Jeff Cero won over Montana State’s Esteban Ferrero and Myles Perkins.
In singles competition, victories by Rice, VanDerschelden, Eberle and Cero over their opponents from Bozeman helped propel PSU to victory. The win over the Bobcats gives the Vikings their first in conference play, and raises them to the top of the Big Sky standings beside Northern Arizona.
“Sean and Chris played extremely well together,” said coach Jay Sterling. “The way those two clicked, I would have felt comfortable pairing them against anyone in the country.”
After their triumph against the Bobcats, the Vikings raced to Eugene to take on Idaho that same evening. However, the Viks could not sustain their momentum and fell 7–0 to the Vandals. In a matchup with Oregon in Eugene on Sunday, the Viks again lost 7–0, this time to the Pac-10 Conference Ducks, 7–0.
The Vikings now have a 2–4 overall record in the season, and are 1–0 in the Big Sky. Portland State continues conference play this weekend when they will host Montana and Eastern Washington before playing non-conference rivals Lewis & Clark.
