Pilots Defeat Gonzaga in WCC Championships Opening RoundWCC Championships Central SAN DIEGO, Calif. --- The No. 3 seed Portland Pilots knocked off No. 10 seed Gonzaga by a 4-2 margin in the opening round of the 2014 West Coast Conference Men's Tennis Championships Wednesday afternoon at the Barnes Tennis Center. The Pilots (13-8) move on to face No. 7 seed Pacific on Thursday at 9 a.m.
Portland started slowly and dropped the doubles point, but rebounded with solid singles play to secure the match. Head coach and WCC Coach of the Year Aaron Gross was happy with his team's resilience.
"The season has been filled with special moments and today was special for different reasons," Gross said. "We really struggled in the doubles. Gonzaga played well and we let a big lead get away at No. 2 to lose the point. The doubles point is huge in college tennis. Sitting there on the break between doubles and singles our guys needed to make a choice of whether to accept that we have had a nice season and maybe today just wasn't meant to be, or decide to fight through the struggles we were having. Thank goodness, our guys chose fight."
Junior Reid deLaubenfels and senior Ratan Gill quickly posted straight set wins at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, respectively, for the Pilots. Gonzaga won at No. 5 singles to make it 2-2 and it came down to the final three singles matches.
"DeLaubenfels and Gill played well," Gross noted. "Those guys closing out their matches handily was huge for us as coaches, because it really allowed us to focus on three key matches that were still going – of which we had to win two. Justin Guay came back from 5-2 down and three sets points to win the first set in probably the biggest set he has played all year. Then he rode that momentum into the second set and got through. Kent Andreasen and Michel Hu Kwo were battling to see who could get the clinching point for us. Kent played an awesome third set to clinch as Michel was stopped with a 5-2 lead in the third."
Portland is shorthanded as senior Alex Ferrero went down with a season-ending injury two weeks ago. His presence cheering on his teammates provided a much-needed morale boost.
"Gonzaga played hard, I don't want to take anything away from them," Gross continued. "But we didn't play great. What made it special was finding a way to live another day in this tournament in spite of the fact that we struggled. We definitely felt some pressure today. Even with Alex Ferrero out, we felt like this was a very winnable match. I think we will loosen up for tomorrow. Pacific is a good team. When we beat them, Alex was a huge part of that win. I think our guys know that we maybe aren't the favorite tomorrow, but don't count us out. Whatever fight we still have left in us will be put out there tomorrow."
Live match updates will be provided for all WCC Tournament matches at WCCSports.com.
Portland 4, Gonzaga 2
WCC Championships
San Diego, Calif. (Barnes Tennis Center)
April 23, 2014Doubles1. Jack Schoebel/Muzeen Ismath (GON) def. Reid deLaubenfels/Kent Andreasen (POR) 8-5
2. Joey Brandt/Vladimir Mijatovic (GON) def. Justin Guay/Michel Hu Kwo (POR) 8-5
3. Ratan Gill/Alex Wallace (POR) def. Hayden Smith/Pablo Mosquera (GON) 8-3
Order of Finish: 3,1,2Singles1. Michel Hu Kwo (POR) vs. Nick Kamisar (GON) 7-5, 5-2 DNF
2. Reid deLaubenfels (POR) def. Vladimir Mijatovic (GON) 6-3, 6-2
3. Ratan Gill (POR) def. Hayden Smith (GON) 6-2, 6-1
4. Justin Guay (POR) def. Jack Schoebel (GON) 7-6, 6-4
5. Muzeen Ismath (GON) def. Alex Wallace (POR) 6-2, 6-3
6. Kent Andreasen (POR) def. Pablo Mosquera (GON) 6-4, 2-6, 6-1
Order of Finish: 2,5,3,4,6
