PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland men's tennis team won its West Coast Conference opener, knocking off the Gonzaga Bulldogs 6-1 Saturday afternoon at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center. It is the third straight win for the Pilots (4-3), while the Bulldogs (2-3) fall to 0-2 in WCC play.Sophomore Michail Pervolarakis continued his solid early season play with a convincing 6-2, 6-1 win over Hayden Smith at No. 1 singles. Pervolarakis has now won four straight matches at the top of the lineup.Sophomore Pierre Garcia came back from a set down to win 6-2 in the third against Jordan Smith at the No. 3 spot. He improved his dual singles record to 5-2 this spring.Freshman Felix Fan cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 4 singles, while sophomore Alex Wallace also won in straight sets at No. 5 singles to clinch the match for the Pilots. "Our guys are pretty keyed up for WCC play," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "This was an early conference match, so it took on a bit more importance in our minds at this point in the season. I like to think we prepare for every match the same and treat every match with a sense of urgency, but WCC matches have just that little extra edge to them at times. I thought we played a little nervous at certain points and feel like we could have been a bit sharper, but Gonzaga had a lot to do with that.
"We played well enough to get the doubles point and Mike got a pretty routine win at No. 1. Pierre did an amazing job of fighting back after losing the first set in a tie-breaker to get through a tough opponent. Alex Wallace is back from the flu and did a nice job in clinching the fourth point for the win."
Sophomore Jared Madison maintained his perfect singles record this spring with a 6-4, 6-3 win at the No. 6 position. Madison is now 5-0 in dual singles matches.
Portland earned the doubles point with 6-2 victories at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions. Pierre Garcia and Wallace are now 3-2 at No. 2 doubles, while senior Kent Andreasen and freshman Carlos Donat improved to 4-1 this spring with the win at the No. 3 spot. "After dropping those tight matches against Cal Poly and Washington, we have done a really nice job rebounding to win three straight, including 20 of the possible 21 points in those dual matches," Gross added. "Things are going to get tougher soon, but we will enjoy this little roll we are on right now and get back to working on continuing the improvements early next week in preparation for Fresno State."
The Pilots will next head to Seattle, Wash. for a neutral site meeting with the No. 75 Fresno State Bulldogs on Saturday, Feb. 20. The match will be played at Washington's Nordstrom Tennis Center at 2 p.m. Live video will be available courtesy of GoHuskies.com.
Portland 6, Gonzaga 1
Portland, Ore. (Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center)
February 13, 2016
Singles1. PERVOLARAKIS, Michail (POR) def. SMITH, Hayden (GON) 6-2, 6-12. O'SULLIVAN, Ruadhan (GON) def. GARCIA, Mathieu (POR) 6-3, 6-13. GARCIA, Pierre (POR) def. SMITH, Jordan (GON) 6-7, 7-5, 6-24. FAN, Felix (POR) def. VARAS, Vicente (GON) 6-1, 6-05. WALLACE, Alex (POR) def. SAUROMBE, Ronzai (GON) 7-6, 6-36. MADISON, Jared (POR) def. MORENO, Emilio (GON) 6-4, 6-3Doubles1. GARCIA, M./PERVOLARAKIS (POR) vs. SMITH, J./SMITH, H. (GON) 2-3, unfinished2. GARCIA, P./WALLACE (POR) def. O'SULLIVAN/MORENO (GON) 6-23. ANDREASEN, Kent/DONAT, Carlos (POR) def. VARAS/SAUROMBE (GON) 6-2Match Notes:Gonzaga 2-3, 0-2 WCCPortland 4-3, 1-0 WCCOrder of finish: Doubles (3,2); Singles (1,2,4,5,3,6)
