Box Score DAVIS, Calif. – Portland sophomore Sema Pankin won the top-flight singles tournament of the Aggie Invitational to highlight a successful fall debut for the Pilots this weekend. Junior Tom Hann and graduate transfer Kostya Nesterenko also reached the finals of the top-flight doubles draw. Collectively, Portland's eight competitors finished 18-10 in singles and 8-6 in doubles play at the tournament.

Pankin, seeded No. 2 in the tournament, knocked off top-seeded Julian Evrard of Nevada in Sunday's title match by a 7-5, 6-1 margin. Pankin faced a tough challenge earlier in the day in pulling out a 6-3, 0-6, 7-5 win against Ivan Thamma of host UC Davis in the semifinals. The Omsk, Russia native won his first three matches in straight sets, albeit tight scores in all three.

"Sema hasn't played a lot of matches since last season for various reasons," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "He battled through the first three rounds to barely get by and then played some great tennis today against two quality opponents. Mathieu (Garcia) and Carlos (Donat) have both been finalists at this tournament in recent years and have knocked on the door to winning it, but couldn't quite get there. If feels good that Sema was able to get a title for us."

Hann and Nesterenko on their first three doubles matches to reach the finals, before falling by an 8-6 margin to a team from Santa Clara. The duo won a marathon semifinal match against top-seeded David Goulak and Ivan Thamma of UC Davis in a tiebreaker.

Nesterenko had an impressive debut in a Pilot uniform. In addition to the doubles performance, the Nevada grad transfer reached the quarterfinals of the top singles draw and won three of four singles matches overall.

"All of our guys took care of some business this weekend and seemed to get stronger as the weekend went on. We won eight out of our 10 singles matches on Sunday. This event is always important to us to kind of see where we are at early in the fall. It feels like we are ahead of schedule and we still have a couple of players who haven't played yet due to injuries. We are looking forward to our next event down in Stanford in a couple of weeks."

Portland continues its fall campaign at the ITA Northwest Regionals hosted by Stanford on Oct. 25-29 at the Taube Family Tennis Center.

Aggie Invitational
Davis, Calif. (Marya Welch Tennis Center)
Sept. 27-29, 2019

Flight A Singles
32 Sema Pankin (POR) def. Justus Drees (HNU) 7-5, 7-5
32 Kostya Nesterenko (POR) def. Vasileios Iliopoulos (SCU) 6-1, 6-3
32 Issa Yoshida (POR) def. Santiago Hinojosa (SCU) 6-3, 6-1
32 Nicklas Oberg (POR) def. Guillermo Romero (HNU) 6-3, 7-5
16 Pankin (POR) def. Akram El Sallaly (PAC) 7-5, 6-4
16 Nesterenko (POR) def. Chethan Swanson (UCD) 6-4, 6-0
16 Julien Evrard (NEV) def. Yoshida (POR) 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-5
16 David Goulak (UCD) def. Oberg (POR) 6-3, 6-1
QF Pankin (POR) def. Arthur Neuhaus (SCU) 7-5, 7-6 (2)
QF Ivan Thamma (UCD) def. Nesterenko (POR) 2-6, 6-2, 6-4
SF Pankin (POR) def. Thamma (UCD) 6-3, 0-6, 7-5
F Pankin (POR) def. Evrard (NEV) 7-5, 6-1

Flight B Singles
32 Andrew Watterson (SMC) def. Arjun Mariyappa (POR) 6-2, 5-7, 6-3
32 Brett Brinkman (UCD) def. Leo Hibi (POR) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
32 John Horoz Garner (PAC) def. Dustin Kua (POR) 6-2, 6-1

Flight B Consolation
C Mariyappa (POR) def. Philip Achenbach (HNU) 6-0, 6-0
C Karlo Divkovic (SMC) def. Hibi (POR) 6-4, 6-3
C Kua (POR) def. Mitchell Davis (UCD) 6-3, 6-4

Saturday Consolation
C Mariyappa (POR) def. Davis (UCD) 6-2, 6-1
C Swanson (UCD) def. Oberg (POR) 6-3, 6-4
C Yoshida (POR) def. Iliopoulos (SCU) 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (9)
C Hibi (POR) def. Coby McCaig (PAC) 6-4, 6-4

Sunday Consolation
C Oberg (POR) def. Daniel Landa (UCD) 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (9)
C Nesterenko (POR) def. Arthur Neuhaus (SCU) 6-1, 6-3
C Hibi (POR) def. Gvida Motuzas (NEV) 6-1, 6-4
C Mariyappa (POR) def. Bailey Gong (FSU) 6-2, 6-1
C Swanson (UCD) def. Yoshida (POR) 6-1, 2-6, 1-0 (6)
C Manroop Saini (PAC) def. Kua (POR) 6-3, 6-1

Flight A Doubles
16 Tom Hann/Nesterenko (POR) def. Delmas Ntcha/Motuzas (NEV) 8-4
16 Matis Bot/Kivkovic (SMC) def. Pankin/Yoshida (POR) 8-7
QF Hann/Nesterenko (POR) def Abhishek Bastola/Boris Reckow (SMC) 8-1
SF Hann/Nesterenko (POR) def. Goulak/Thamma (UCD) 8-7 (3)
F Iliopoulos/Neuhaus (SCU) def. Hann/Nesterenko (POR) 8-6

Flight A Doubles Consolation
C Pankin/Yoshida (POR) def. Javier Lugue/Guillermo Romero (HNU) 8-4

Flight B Doubles
16 Hibi/Oberg (POR) def. Watterson/Jackson Hawk (SMC) 8-2
16 Arjith Jayaraman/Andrei Volgin (UCD) def. Mariyappa/Kua (POR) 8-3
QF Hibi/Oberg (POR) def. Harry Cohen/Santiago Sarudiansky (SON) 8-3
SF Darish Jalali/Swanson (UCD) def. Hibi/Oberg (POR) 8-6

Flight B Consolation
C Mariyappa/Kua (POR) def. Joseph Greco/Dimitrije Vukovic (HNU) 8-7 (5)

Saturday Consolation
C Benjamin Campi/Daniel Dudockin (NEV) def. Hibi/Oberg (POR) 8-6
C Pankin/Yoshida (POR) def. Tadiwa Chinamo/El Sallaly (PAC) 8-7 (3)
C Giovanni Fragalle/Achenbach (HNU) def. Mariyappa/Kua (POR) 8-7 (4)