PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland Pilots swept all six singles matches in straight sets to pull out a 6-1 victory over the Idaho Vandals in men's tennis action Sunday afternoon at the Louisiana Pacific Tennis Center. The Pilots improve to 2-0 on the season, while Idaho falls to 1-1.
The Vandals struck first by stealing the doubles point after posting wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. Portland juniors Jamie Fisher and Goutham Sundaram pulled out the win at No. 3 doubles to improve to 2-0 this spring.
The Pilots bounced back in singles play as junior Michail Pervolarakis evened the score with a solid 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 1 position. Pervolarakis, ranked No. 66 nationally, cruised past Carlos Longhi Neto.
Brothers Mathieu and Pierre Garcia followed shortly thereafter with hard-fought wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions, respectively. Mathieu defeated Mark Kovacs 7-6, 6-3, while Pierre dispensed of Felipe Fonseca 6-2, 7-6.
Junior Alex Wallace had the match-clinching point at No. 4 singles with a 6-2, 7-5 win against Esteban Santibanez.
Sophomores Carlos Donat and Felix Fan closed out the scoring with victorieas over Lucas Coutinho and Guilherme Scarpelli, respectively.
"Today turned into a really good test for us," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "Idaho has one of its stronger and more competitive teams in the last three years or so and really challenged us all day. The doubles format is so short now that anything can happen. If you blink and take your foot off the gas a little bit you can be down a point really quickly, and that is what happened to us today.
"Fortunately, we kept our composure and came back strong in singles. Nearly every player was tested at some point in singles, which was great since we got through it. It's hard to single out one individual effort on a day like today. I thought Pierre did an excellent job today in maintaining composure and was very solid off the baseline. Alex, Mike and Felix are all kind of finding the range and did good jobs. Carlos had a very nice decisive win against a player that has given us trouble before. Overall it was a very good effort in coming back and getting the job done today."
Portland will be back in action for a pair of matches this coming Saturday at the Louisiana Pacific Tennis Center. The Pilots will host Seattle University at 10 a.m. and then welcome Sacramento State at 5:30 p.m. Both matches will have live video and stats available at PortlandPilots.com.
Portland 6, Idaho 1
Portland, Ore. (Louisiana Pacific Tennis Center)
January 22, 2017
Singles
1. #66 PERVOLARAKIS, Michail (POR) def. LONGHI NETO, Carlos (UI) 6-3, 6-3
2. GARCIA, Mathieu (POR) def. KOVACS, Mark (UI) 7-6, 6-3
3. GARCIA, Pierre (POR) def. FONSECA, Felipe (UI) 6-2, 7-6
4. WALLACE, Alex (POR) def. SANTIBANEZ, Esteban (UI) 6-2, 7-5
5. DONAT, Carlos (POR) def. COUTINHO, Lucas (UI) 6-1, 6-1
6. FAN, Felix (POR) def. SCARPELLI, Guilherme (UI) 7-6, 6-4
Doubles
1. KOVACS, Mark/LONGHI NETO, Carlos (UI) def. PERVOLARAKIS, Michail/GARCIA, Mathieu (POR) 6-2
2. COUTINHO, Lucas/SANTIBANEZ, Esteban (UI) def. FAN, Felix/WALLACE, Alex (POR) 6-4
3. FISHER, Jamie/SUNDARAM, Goutham (POR) def. FONSECA, Felipe/SCARPELLI, Guilherme (UI) 6-4
Match Notes:
Idaho 1-1
Portland 2-0
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (1,2,3,4,5,6)
