Martin Continues Torrid Season as Pilots Top Gonzaga
SPOKANE, Wash. --- Senior Jackson Martin extended his personal winning streak to seven matches, clinching the team victory as the short-handed Portland Pilots opened West Coast Conference play on Saturday with a gutsy 4-3 win over the Gonzaga Bulldogs at the Spokane Racquet Club.
The Pilots have now won back-to-back matches to improve to 6-2 on the season, while the Bulldogs fall to 4-2. It was the first WCC match for both teams.
Martin, the lone senior on the roster, once again shined with the spotlight on him. After capturing the first set, 6-4, Jackson trailed Vladimir Mijatovic 6-5 in the second set. Needing to break Mijatovic’s serve, Martin came through to force a tiebreaking game.
Thinking about how to boost Jackson’s competitive spirit, Portland head coach Aaron Gross began strategizing. “The player Jackson beat from Ole Miss had won the match clinching match today at the National Indoor Championships. I wanted to remind Jackson of how far he has come in such a short period of time.”
Continued Gross, “I want him to relate to the Jackson that beat one of the best players in the country at his position, rather than the Jackson that used to struggle against lesser ranked teams.”
As Gross was thinking of how to motivate Jackson for a potential third set, the Salem native was already forging his comeback. After losing the first two points, Martin found himself in a 3-1 hole before rallying off six straight points to clinch the match with what Gross described as “an amazing forehand.”
The Pilots, playing their third match in four days against three tough opponents, started the day with the doubles point before juniors Justin Guay and Michel Hu Kwo put Portland within a point of winning the match with wins in their respective matches.
“Today was a very gutty performance from our guys,” Gross proudly noted. “[At the beginning of the week], we knew if we were to win today it was going to be because we were going to need to be tougher mentally.”
Continued Gross, “Justin and Michel put some clutch wins on the board early for us. Ratan Gill has played three incredibly long matches in the last four days. Yet he pushed Gonzaga’s number one, who is a very solid player all the way to 7-5 in the third. I couldn't ask for more from Ratan. He is a warrior.”
Lingering injuries limited junior Alex Ferrero’s effectiveness in singles play against a “tricky opponent” in Levin Guillermo, but the boost he provided in doubles with Gill gave Portland the spark they needed for the eventual victory.
The Pilots return to Portland, with their next match schedule for Saturday against the Idaho Vandals in the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center.
