After routing the University of North Dakota 7-0 on March 13, the Portland State men’s tennis team was looking to continue their streak with another Big Sky win against the University of Montana Grizzlies last Friday. But despite a sweep in doubles, the Vikings were unable to keep up with their conference foes, dropping five out of six singles matches for a tough 5-2 loss.
PSU entrusted the No. 1 doubles slot to Connor Gilmore and Brent Wheeler, and the duo dealt the first blow of the bout with an 8-2 win over the Grizzles’ Michael Facey and Mikolaj Caruk. They were followed by Alec Marx and Abhinav Mishra, who rolled to a victory over the Grizzles No. 3 doubles team 8-3.
After their impressive doubles performances, the Vikings hoped to bridge their success into singles play. But it was not to be, as Montana claimed its five singles wins in straight sets to put the match out of reach. PSU’s Zach Lubek took the court last, the team’s final hope of avoiding a singles sweep. Lubek battled to take the first set 7-5, but the Grizzles’ Eric Braun snarled back to grab the second set 6-1 and send the contest into a match tiebreaker. Lubek managed to recover from the onslaught, dictating play in the breaker and ultimately closing it out 10-7 for the team’s only singles win of the night.
Meanwhile, the women’s team was in Boise, Idaho, for a matchup with Lewis-Clark State College. The Vikings were upset at No. 1 doubles but remained in fine form in the other two doubles matches, then tore through all six singles matches for a 7-0 sweep of the Warriors. The win was exactly the confidence boost that the Vikings needed before heading into the last three conference matches of the season.
Marti Pellicano and Mandy Mallen logged the first win of the match at No. 2 doubles for the Vikings, rolling to an 8-2 win, and Kelsey Frey and Megan Govi kept it going at the No. 3 slot, logging an 8-4 win to secure the doubles point. Lewis-Clark’s Livia Biasque and Dorothy Chong teamed up to record a hard-fought 8-7 (7-3) doubles win over Marina Todd and Nayanatara Vadali that proved to be the only bright spot for the Warriors against a determined PSU squad.
The Vikings carried that momentum into singles, taking all six matches. In the No. 2 slot, Todd met up with Biasque for the second time. After Todd rushed out to a 6-3 first-set win, Biasque charged back to take the second 6-2. The match tiebreaker was close throughout, but Todd maintained her composure and won it 10-8.
Next on the agenda for the women’s team is an importance conference matchup with the University of Northern Colorado at Club Green Meadows, scheduled for April 6 at 1 p.m. The men’s team moves on to a couple of Big Sky showdowns of their own at home, first against the University of California, Sacramento, on April 5 at 9 a.m., followed by a meeting with Northern Colorado on April 7 at 9 a.m.