The Portland State men’s tennis team lost 6-1 to Utah State in Logan, Utah on Saturday and went down with the same scoreline against Big Sky conference rivals Idaho State in Pocatello, Idaho on Sunday. This was their fourth loss this season in four games; they are currently 0-1 in the conference.
In their first two games of 2012, Portland State lost 7-0 to Oregon and 6-1 to Montana State at home. Although Montana State is a Big Sky team, the Vikings’ loss to them was not a conference game.
With two more conference matches scheduled in the next two weeks, the young Portland State team will have to achieve winning form soon if they are to realize their goal of making it to the Big Sky post-season. The top four out of the nine conference teams make it to the Big Sky semi-finals each year.
After Friday’s loss against Utah State, Vikings head coach Jay Sterling preferred to look at the positives from the game.
“It was a good first match at altitude for us this year,” he said in a statement. “We wanted to play at altitude before opening conference play at Idaho State on Sunday. I was really happy with our effort.”
Utah State had a definite advantage playing in their home setting, and the final 6-1 score reflected that.
“The ball gets on you a little bit faster and travels a little further in the thinner air,” Sterling said.
Portland State did not start very well against Utah State. They lost all the doubles matches and the doubles points. The junior pair Nick Fracchia and Zach Lubek came close, but lost their game against Utah State’s Nate Ballam and Matt Sweet 8-6.
In singles competition, redshirt sophomore Roman Margoulis was defeated in straight sets 6-3, and 6-4 by Sven Poslusny at line one. Margoulis impressed with his performances in the previous game, and was the only Vikings’ player to win a singles match.
Portland State’s singles players faced straight set defeats at lines two, four, five and six. However, at line two, junior Mitch Somach had to dig deep for his 7-6 (13-11), 6-4 win over Curran Wearmouth. In the first set, he extended his game to a long tie-breaker.
This was Somach’s first victory of the season. He is one of the team’s returning players from last season. With this win, Utah improved to 4-1 in 2012.
On Saturday, the Vikings came within a few games of earning an elusive doubles point. In the first doubles, match the pair Somach and freshman Alex Marx won their game 8-6. Unfortunately, Margoulis and sophomore Abhinav Mishra were edged out 9-8 by their Idaho State opponents.
With the 8-3 loss in the third and deciding doubles contest, Portland State conceded the doubles point to Idaho State.
In the singles matches, Margoulis returned to winning form and won his match 6-2, 6-4 at line one. This was his second singles win of the season. At line five, Fracchia battled hard and stretched his game to three sets. He eventually lost 4-6, 6-3, 10-3.
The Vikings lost the remaining four singles matches in straight sets and lost the contest 6-1. Last year, Portland State had lost to Idaho State in Lake Oswego with the same scoreline.
Next weekend, the Vikings go on the road again and take on Air Force and conference-rivals Northern Colorado.