PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland men's tennis team beat the Santa Clara Broncos 4-1 on Sunday in a West Coast Conference match at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center. The Pilots (12-6, 3-2 WCC) have now won three straight matches, while the Broncos (9-9, 2-2 WCC) had their three-match win streak snapped.

Santa Clara took the early momentum by stealing the doubles point in a hotly contested match that came down to a tiebreaker at the No. 1 spot. Portland cruised to a 6-1 win at No. 3 doubles behind Pierre Garcia and Felix Fan, but the Broncos evened it with a win at No. 2. The Bronco tandem of Robert Seby and Connor Garnett then outlasted Portland's Michail Pervolarakis and Mathieu Garcia 10-8 in a tiebreaker.

"It wasn't necessarily fun going through it, but today was a great test for us," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "Santa Clara outplayed us in doubles and got that point. It was actually a pretty emotional fight in that doubles point and I was curious on how we would respond. Needless to say I was very pleased."

Portland answered in singles with the Garcia brothers each winning in straight sets. Pierre Garcia defeated Seby 6-3, 6-0 at No. 3 and then Mathieu Garcia knocked off Andrew Gu 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 2 position to give the Pilots a 2-1 lead.

Pervolarakis dropped his first set to Ashot Khacharyan at No. 1 singles, but bounced back to win the second 6-3. He was leading 3-0 in the third when Khacharyan retired as Portland gained a 3-1 overall lead. Pervolarakis ran his unbeaten streak to eight matches and improved to 12-4 this dual season.

"The Garcia brothers came through huge for us in singles," Gross noted. "They each won the first set and got off to really quick starts in the second sets and put their opponents away pretty quick to get us in front. Mike was really struggling today with his health a little bit and also with the serve. He lost the first set but just toughed it out and gave himself a chance in the second set and he was eventually able to come through."

Freshman Carlos Donat then clinched it for the Pilots with a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 6 singles over Sebastien Mathieu. Donat is 11-2 in dual singles matches this spring.

"Carlos was just so solid at number six in clinching it for us," said Gross.  I can't remember having a freshman player that I have so much confidence in at that number six position when the match is on the line. He is really doing an excellent job.

"It was a great weekend. Obviously home-court advantage is huge in our conference, but I like to think that all of the long hours and work that the guys put in has really paid off in improvement. A year ago we had lost to both San Francisco and Santa Clara and we were able to turn those results around this weekend."

Portland will hit the road next week for a pair of WCC matches against ranked opponents in Southern California. The Pilots visit No. 68 Loyola Marymount on Saturday at noon and then take on No. 54 Pepperdine on Sunday at noon.

Portland 4, Santa Clara 1
Portland, Ore. (Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center)
April 3, 2016

Singles
1. PERVOLARAKIS, Mike (POR) def. Ashot Khacharyan (SCU) 4-6, 6-3, 3-0, retired
2. GARCIA, Mathieu (POR) def. Andrew Gu (SCU) 6-3, 6-1
3. GARCIA, Pierre (POR) def. Robert Seby (SCU) 6-3, 6-0
4. WALLACE, Alex (POR) vs. Connor Garnett (SCU) 6-3, 4-6, 2-1, unfinished
5. FAN, Felix (POR) vs. Kamram Khan (SCU) 6-7 (6-10), unfinished
6. DONAT, Carlos (POR) def. Sebastien Mathieu (SCU) 6-2, 6-1

Doubles
1. Seby/Garnett (SCU) def. PERVOLARAKIS/GARCIA, M. (POR) 7-6 (10-8)
2. Khan/Gu (SCU) def. ANDREASEN, Kent/WALLACE (POR) 6-4
3. GARCIA, P./FAN (POR) def. Khacharyan/Jeffrey Liang (SCU) 6-1

Match Notes:
Santa Clara 9-9, 2-2 WCC
Portland 12-6, 3-2 WCC
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (3,2,1,6)