On the road again

The Portland State men’s tennis team flies to Colorado to play Big Sky rival Northern Colorado and then Air Force this weekend, while the women’s team heads north to Richmond, Wash., to take on Idaho and Seattle on Saturday.

 The men’s team enters Saturday’s contest against Northern Colorado on the back of two successive victories over Lewis & Clark and conference opponent Eastern Washington. In their last home game against Lewis & Clark, the Vikings won all three doubles and all six singles matches to defeat the Pioneers, 7–0.

 “I’m expecting tough matches at both venues,” interim head coach Jay Sterling said. “Northern Colorado will be hungry and looking for their first win of the season, and we’ll be playing them at altitude, which always takes some getting used to, both physically and technically.

“Plus, they will be looking for some revenge. We beat them 5–2 last year, but the score doesn’t tell the story—the matches were really close.”

 The Portland State men (4–5, 2–1 Big Sky) are currently placed third in the Big Sky standings. Northern Colorado has yet to register a win in 2010, and Air Force is 4–2 on the season.

“We had some pretty emotional matches against [Air Force] last year at the Mac Club, so it wouldn’t surprise me if some of their guys have been eyeing this match on their schedule, Sterling said. “I know that our guys will be excited about the match on Sunday morning, but right now their focus is on our Saturday morning conference match against Northern Colorado.”

 The Portland State women’s team, who take on both Idaho and Seattle on Saturday, got its first taste of victory this season against Southern Oregon last Friday.

The Vikings defeated the Raiders with a 6–1 margin, but just two days later the Viks fell to Seattle 7–0 at the Stott Center.

 “We learned that they [Seattle] are a stronger team than last year, but we also learned that we can compete with them if we play to our full potential,” Sterling said. “If we play and fight as well as they did in their match against Montana last weekend, their matches against Idaho and Seattle University will be competitive.”