SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Portland men's tennis team pulled out a hard-fought 4-2 victory over the Santa Clara Broncos in West Coast Conference action Saturday afternoon at the Degheri Tennis Center. The Pilots handed Santa Clara its first home loss of the season and improved to 12-1 on the season and 2-0 in league play, while the Broncos fall to 10-3 and 0-2 in WCC matches.
The victory concludes an impress conference-opening road sweep for the Pilots, who defeated San Francisco by a 4-2 margin on Friday night.
For the second match in as many days, sophomore Felix Fan provided the clinching point after coming back from a set down.
"We had a great effort by our team today," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "Bouncing back from a late night win last night indoors to playing a very good Santa Clara team today outdoors was going to be challenging. Letting the doubles point slip away from us after we had a stranglehold on it made it that much tougher. Felix was once again the hero of the day getting the clinching point after a long, hard-fight match where he was down three match points in the second set."
After dropping the doubles point and the first singles decision, the Pilots won the next three singles matches in straight sets. Two matches went to three sets as Mathieu Garcia battled Andrew Gu at the No. 2 spot and sophomore Felix Fan pushed Kamran Khan to a third set at No. 6. Fan pulled out the 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 win to clinch the win as Garcia trailed Gu 6-5 in the third.
The Broncos went up 2-0 after claiming the first singles point by Jesus Barajas, but the Pilots rattled off the next four singles matches to clinch.
Pierre Garcia put the Pilots on the board with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Garnett at the No. 3 position. It dropped Garnett's dual record this spring to 11-2. Donat then defeated Iliopoulos by a 6-4, 6-2 margin to win his fourth straight match and tie the score.
Michail Pervolarakis ran his singles win streak to eight matches and improved to 12-1 this spring with a 6-4, 6-3 decision against Seby at the No. 1 position to give the Pilots a 3-2 lead and setting up the emotional finish for Fan, who improved to 11-1 in dual matches this spring.
"Probably the highlight of the day was Pierre playing a very good match after losing a close and disappointing one last night," Gross said. "He played a very good opponent today playing well from the opening bell all the way to the end. Carlos and Mike are becoming very solid spots for us. They are both very sharp right now. Mathieu saved five match points in the third set before the game was called after Felix clinched. Alex Wallace gave a great effort this weekend. His health is finally rounding into form. He's just missing some match play, so it was really positive to see him get that match play this weekend even though he didn't get a victory."
Santa Clara had the early momentum after pulling out a tightly contested doubles decision. Portland won at No. 1 doubles by a 6-2 margin with Michail Pervolarakis and Mathieu Garcia prevailing over Connor Garnett and Vasileios Iliopoulos. Santa Clara won comfortably at No. 3 doubles and then clinched when Robert Seby and Jesus Barajas beat Pierre Garcia and Fan and in tiebreaker.
"Weekends like this are extra special for me as a coach because I love to see our guys compete hard through adversity and adapt to the different conditions," Gross noted. "We all hear the whispers about how we are a really good 'home' team. In my more sensitive moments I take this as discrediting our team as players. It is pretty satisfying to be on a nice road win streak right now coming back into our building next weekend for a couple of big matches."
Portland will look to continue its winning ways as WCC play continues next week at home. The Pilots host BYU on Friday at 10 a.m. and then Saturday on Saturday at 10 a.m. Portland has won 16 straight matches at the Louisiana Pacific Tennis Center. All Pilot home matches will have live video and live scoring available at PortlandPilots.com.
Portland 4, Santa Clara 2
Santa Clara, Calif. (Degheri Tennis Center)
March 25, 2017
Singles
1. #114 Michail Pervolarakis (POR) def. Robert Seby (SCU) 6-4, 6-3
2. Andrew Gu (SCU) vs. Mathieu Garcia (POR) 6-7, 7-5, 6-5, unfinished
3. Pierre Garcia (POR) def. Connor Garnett (SCU) 6-4, 6-4
4. Jesus Barajas (SCU) def. Alex Wallace (POR) 6-4, 6-4
5. Carlos Donat (POR) def. Vasileios Iliopoulos (SCU) 6-4, 6-2
6. Felix Fan (POR) def. Kamran Khan (SCU) 6-7, 7-6, 6-2
Doubles
1. Pervolarakis/M. Garcia (POR) def. Garnett/Iliopoulos (SCU) 6-2
2. Seby/Barajas (SCU) def. P. Garcia/Fan (POR) 7-6 (4)
3. Gu/Khan (SCU) def. Jamie Fisher/Donat (POR) 6-2
Match Notes:
Portland 12-1, 2-0 WCC
Santa Clara 10-3, 0-2 WCC
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (4,3,5,1,6)
