Box Score PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland men's tennis team swept crosstown rival Portland State 7-0 on Sunday in the 2019 home opener for the Pilots at the Louisiana Pacific Tennis Center. Portland improves to 1-1 on the young season, while the Vikings dropped to 1-1 as well.

The Pilots set the tone with dominant doubles play, winning all three positions comfortably.

Singles was a battle as four of the six matches went to three sets. Freshman Sema Pankin continued his strong start for Portland with a 6-2, 6-1 win at the No. 1 position over Matteo Fortini. He improves to 2-0 in dual matches after also posting a straight sets win against Washington on Sunday.

Sophomore Tom Hann then beat Avery West 6-5, 7-6 at No. 3 singles to make it 3-0 in favor of the Pilots.

Freshman Nicklas Oberg clinched the match at No. 2 singles with a marathon, three-set comeback victory over Lucas Castelo Branco. Less than 24 hours after dropping a three-setter at UW, Oberg outlasted Branco by a 5-7, 6-0, 6-4 margin.

The bottom of the lineup all went to super-tiebreakers with freshmen Eleftherios Neos, Issa Yoshida and Leo Hibi each recording their first collegiate dual wins.

"I'm not sure exactly where our talent level rates relative to the top returning teams in our conference, but I feel competitively we are going to be really strong after a day like today," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "Sema played excellent and our doubles was very sharp, but besides that we really didn't play great. Part of it was coming back after a long day yesterday, and part of it was Portland State fighting hard and playing well. We lost a lot of close games and no-ad games last night. We won a lot of those close ones today. Good teams win most of those close games and that becomes a huge advantage. The margin is so close in these matches, but really it does come down to a few moments and the decisiveness is the factor most of the time."

The Pilots will head to Las Vegas next weekend for a pair of dual matches. Portland and Northern Arizona will meet on Saturday at 11 a.m. and then the Pilots will face host UNLV on Sunday at 11 a.m.

Portland 7, Portland State 0
Portland, Ore. (Louisiana Pacific Tennis Center)
Jan. 20, 2019

Singles
1. Sema Pankin (POR) def. Matteo Fortini (PSU) 6-2, 6-1
2. Nicklas Oberg (POR) def. Lucas Castelo Branco (PSU) 5-7, 6-0, 6-4
3. Tom Hann (POR) def. Avery West (PSU) 6-4, 7-6 (5)
4. Eleftherios Neos (POR) def. Tommy Edwards (PSU) 4-6, 7-6 (7), 1-0 (9)
5. Issa Yoshida (POR) def. Sam Roberts (PSU) 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (7)
6. Leo Hibi (POR) def. Nikola Dimitrijevic (PSU) 1-6, 6-0, 1-0 (7)

Doubles
1. Hann/Neos (POR) def. West/Edwards (PSU) 6-3
2. Pankin/Yoshida (POR) def. Fortini/Castelo Branco (PSU) 6-2
3. Hibi/Oberg (POR) def. Roberts/Majeed Bukhari (PSU) 6-2

Order of Finish: Singles (1,3,2,4,5,6), Doubles (2,1,3)