Tennis prepares for Big Sky Championships

The Viking women’s tennis team ended its regular season last Saturday with an impressive 7-0 nonconference win over Green River Community College. The match, held at the Portland Tennis Center, was a fairly easy outing for the Vikings and served as major encouragement to the team as it heads into championship play.

The women end their season with an overall record of 8-16, a significant improvement over their win total of three from last year. The men’s team, which did not play Green River on Saturday due to a cancellation, ends the season at 3-19, barely surpassing last year’s win total of two.

PSU will host the single-elimination Big Sky Championships this week, which will be held at both the Portland Tennis Center and Westview High School. Matches begin April 25 and go through the finals April 28. The men’s quarterfinals will take place on Thursday, with No. 1 seed Northern Arizona taking on Eastern Washington (8), Montana State (2) facing Portland State (7), Idaho State (3) playing Weber State (6), and Montana (4) battling it out with Sacramento State (5).

The women’s quarterfinals are scheduled to take place Friday. No. 1 seed Sacramento State will face Eastern Washington (8), Northern Arizona (2) will play Montana State (7), Idaho State (3) will take on Portland State (6), and Montana (4) will face Weber State (5).

Semifinal matches will be held Saturday, and the remaining teams will head into the finals Sunday. Head coach Leslie Lewis is confident her teams have what it takes to win at home.

“If I was a rival coach, I wouldn’t want to be playing us,” she said. “They’re coming onto our courts and they’ll have to make the adjustments.”