The Portland State men’s tennis team played city rivals University of Portland at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center on Saturday and conference rivals Weber State Sunday, and lost both matches 6-1. This was the Viking’s fourth successive loss. With this result, the Vikings have a 2-11 record this season and are 0-5 in the Big Sky conference.
The Portland State men’s tennis team played city rivals University of Portland at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center on Saturday and conference rivals Weber State Sunday, and lost both matches 6-1. This was the Viking’s fourth successive loss. With this result, the Vikings have a 2-11 record this season and are 0-5 in the Big Sky conference.
The Vikings went into the first game on the back of twin 4-3 defeats to Montana State Billings and Montana State on the road. Last season, Portland State had lost to the Pilots with a similar 6-1 scoreline.
On Saturday, the game in North Portland started with three doubles duels. The match at the third doubles line was the first to finish. The Viking pair of juniors Zack Lubek and Nick Fracchia lost to Portland’s Justin Guay and Ratan Gill 8-3.
Portland State fought back and freshman Alex Marx and sophomore Abhinav Mishra won their match 8-4. However, in the final and deciding doubles match, the Viking pair of juniors Roman Margoulis and Mitch Somach lost in a narrow tie-breaker 9-8 (7-1). Thus, Portland State lost the doubles point.
In singles competition, Portland State No. 1 Roman Margoulis was the only Viking to win his match. Playing at line one, he defeated Portland’s Geoff Hernandez in straight sets 6-3, 7-5. This year, team’s head coach Jay Sterling promoted sophomore Margoulis to play at line one in the singles.
“Last year he showed me that he has a big game,” Sterling said. “He put a lot of pressure on himself to try and win at No. 4. At No. 1 he can just play without the pressure.”
Sterling’s strategy seems to be working. This season, Margoulis has a 6-6 individual record.
At line six, Fracchia stretched his game against Portland’s Jackson Martin to a third set tie-breaker but lost 4-6, 6-1, 1-0(10-7). Junior Mitch Somach lost his match in a three setter too. He went down to Portland’s Stefan Micov 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.
The rest of the Vikings lost to their opponents in straight sets, thereby conceding the contest 6-1. Mishra lost his game 6-1, 6-1. Zubek and Marx lost by an identical scoreline of 6-3, 6-1.
On Sunday, the Vikings lost a tough home game to the Weber State Wildcats.
The Wildcats, who were 4-6 coming into the match, beat the Vikings at every singles line except the sixth, where Fracchia overcame Ryan Garner 6-2, 6-2. The Vikings’ only point came from the last match to finish. Mishra and Marx took their wildcat opponents to third matches, but couldn’t find the edge to pull their contests out.
In doubles play, The wildcats beat the Vikings in two of three matches. The doubles team of Mishra and Marx took a win in the second doubles line, and Fracchia and Lubek made their match a fight, but in the end they weren’t able to overcome the Weber State combination of Garner and Dave Hintze.
Next up for the Portland State is a conference match against Montana at home on Saturday. The Vikings’ only wins this year have been non-conference games against Seattle University and George Fox University. PSU needs to turn its season around in a hurry if it hopes to finish in the top half of the nine-team conference. The median teams, Idaho State and Weber State, now have three wins and one loss each, while the Vikings only have three conference games remaining.
While the Vikings currently sit in the gutter of the Big Sky Conference, two teams above them have only one conference win each, so it’s still possible for the men’s tennis team to claw its way into mid-conference standing before the end of the season. Saturday’s game, their second-to-last home game of the season, and last game of winter quarter, becomes almost a must-win for them if they want to salvage their season.
The Game versus Montana starts at noon. Post-game results can be found soon after on bigskyconf.com and goviks.com.
