Weekend double-split

The Portland State tennis teams walked away from this weekend’s matches with mixed results.

The men’s team earned its sixth win of the season against Seattle but lost the important match against Big Sky opponent Weber State in Portland over the weekend. The Vikings (6–7, 3–2 Big Sky), stand fourth in the conference.

On the other hand, an injury-plagued women’s team fell to cross-town rival University of Portland 7–0, but managed to overtake the team from Lewis & Clark, 5–2, to earn their the second win of the season.

The men’s team won important games at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles slots in Friday’s match against Seattle at the Stott Center, to defeat Seattle, 5–2. All three doubles matches went down to the wire with the scores reading 8–6, 8–5 and 8–5.

The Viks then took on the Weber State Wildcats on Saturday at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center. Despite their impressive form in the Big Sky competitions, the Viks went down 5–2 to the Wildcats.

Interim head coach Jay Sterling was still impressed with his team.

 “I thought that we played well against both teams. We were a little flat in doubles in both duels, so we will have to address that issue, but otherwise everyone competed really well. Weber was a solid team, but we’re disappointed in the 5–2 loss. We had some good opportunities in a couple of the matches that we lost, but couldn’t quite convert at key moments.”

In Friday’s game played at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center against Portland, the women’s team had to default on a singles and a doubles match due to injuries to key personnel. As a result, the Viks had to suffer a 7–0 defeat at the hands of the Pilots.

In Saturday’s contest, the Viks showed their grit when they won their match against Lewis & Clark despite being forced to give the line three doubles and line six singles wins to the Pilots due to lack of players.

“I was glad to see us recover from the Portland loss and come back strong against Lewis & Clark. There was a big Lewis & Clark crowd there, which rattled them a bit in doubles, but our women did an excellent job at quieting them down with their strong singles play, and really took care of business.” Sterling said.

The men’s and the women’s team next head to California to take on Sacramento State and UC Davis next weekend.