Portland State splits a tough weekend

Portland State’s Big Sky campaign received a much-needed boost on Friday when the Vikings beat Idaho State 6-1 at the Mountain Park Racquet Club in Lake Oswego. Despite the win, the Viks remain in the seventh position in the conference table with two wins and three losses.

On Friday, Portland State took an early lead by winning the doubles point against Idaho State. The pairs of senior Chris Rice with freshman Roman Margoulis and senior Alex VanDerschelden with sophomore Mitch Somach won their doubles duels in impressive fashion against the Bengals.

In the singles side, Rice had to retire in the second set after losing the first set (6-7) to Idaho State’s Danel Barrenechea. Still, the Viks won the remaining five singles matches in straight sets and took the match 6-1. This was Portland State’s second conference win of the season. Their previous victory came against Northern Colorado (7-0) in February.

Despite chalking up more wins than Big Sky rivals Montana, the Vikings remain in seventh place in the conference standings due to their lower percentage. The Viks have three more conference matches left this season, but no longer control their own playoff destiny. Even if the Viks win their last three conference games, they will have to rely on favorable results elsewhere to qualify for the semi-finals.

In Saturday’s match, the Viks could not sustain their winning momentum and lost to cross-city rivals Portland 1-6 on Saturday at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center. This result relegates the Viks to a 5-9 overall record so far this year.

Contrary to their previous game, the Viks lost all three of their doubles matches and the doubles point. The pair of Rice and Margoulis fought hard, but lost to their opponents 7-8 in a tiebreaker. The Vikings lost the other two games as well, finishing with a 2-8 and 0-8 scoreline.

In singles competition, Somach was the only player who was able to win his game. Playing at line three, he defeated the Pilot’s Bryan Thorpe in straight sets 7-6, 6-2. However, the Viks conceded the other five singles contests. Senior Vetu Mam managed to stretch his match to three sets, but eventually went down 6-4, 1-6, 1-6 to Portland’s Ratan Gill.

Somach was the only Viking to win both his singles games through the two-match weekend, and now has seven wins and seven losses in singles competition in 2011. He is closely followed by VanDerschelden, who stands at six wins and seven losses total this season.

Next weekend, the Viks travel to Montana to take on the University of Montana on Saturday and Montana State on Sunday. Both teams are among the seven teams fighting for the three leftover playoff positions. Sacramento State has already booked its semi-final spot. ?