EUGENE, Ore. – The Portland men's tennis team went a perfect 5-0 in doubles action on Thursday during the second day of the ITA Northwest Regional Championships held at the Student Tennis Center. In afternoon singles, freshman Julien Penzlin advanced to the quarterfinals and has qualified for the ITA Northwest Super Regionals, which will be held Oct. 22-25 in Seattle.

Singles quarterfinalists and doubles semifinalists in the regional main draw will advance to Super Regionals. Pilot junior Sema Pankin is already a singles qualifier for the Super Regional and will now be joined by Penzlin, who defeated Washington's Jack Pulliam by a 6-1, 6-2 margin on Thursday.

The highlight of the day was a perfect doubles performance in the morning. Issa Yoshida and Leo Hibi teamed up for a pair of wins against opponents from Eastern Washington and Washington to reach the quarterfinals. Portland's other three doubles teams each one their lone matches to also advance to the quarterfinals.

Nicklas Oberg and freshman Oscar Brown won their first match together against an Oregon team by an 8-6 margin. Penzlin and sophomore Nikolas Tvedt cruised to an 8-1 win against a Portland State tandem, while Pankin and Eleftherios Neos, the No. 2 seed in the draw, raced to an 8-3 win against a duo from Eastern Washington.

"We had an amazing morning in doubles," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "Having all four of our teams into the quarterfinals tomorrow is a great accomplishment. Leo (Hibi) and Issa (Yoshida) came up big winning 8-7 after being down 7-4 to Washington, while Brown and Oberg picked up a nice win against the Ducks playing together for the first time.

Afternoon singles featured a trio of tough, three-set losses by the Pilots. Luke Vandecasteele of Oregon held off Yoshida (6-4, 2-6, 7-5), Gonzaga's Oliver Andersson clipped Neos (4-6, 6-4, 6-4) and No. 3 seed Nedim Suko of Washington edged Tvedt in a marathon match (6-3, 6-7, 7-6).

"Thursday singles was a little more rocky," Gross noted. "Julien started us off really well with an easy win to move into the quarterfinals. Our other three guys all lost to solid opponents. We have won a lot of close matches in the last 12 months and these types of results are not unexpected in tennis, but we had grown accustomed to pulling these out. I think we learned a ton today and I feel like the guys are more motivated than deflated because of these results. The outcomes were not what we wanted, but the experience is invaluable."

The ITA Northwest Regionals will continue with singles and doubles action on Friday. The tournament draws will play out to completion with finals scheduled for Sunday.
 
ITA Northwest Regional Championships
Eugene, Ore. (Student Tennis Center)
Oct. 13-17, 2021

Singles
64 Leo Hibi (POR) def. Drew Dillon (EWU) 6-1, 6-2
64 Oscar Brown (POR) def. Nils Plutat (PSU) 6-2, 6-4
32 Issa Yoshida (POR) def. Will Jesser (PSU) 6-1, 6-0
32 (4) Julien Penzlin (POR) def. Steven Paz (EWU) 6-3, 6-2
32 Nikolas Tvedt (POR) def. Pablo Gomez Galvan (GON) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
32 Eleftherios Neos (POR) def. Julian Worn (SU) 6-0, 7-6 (5)
32 Arthus de la Bassetiere (GON) def. Nicklas Oberg (POR) 6-3, 6-4
32 Veselin Kiselkov (SU) def. Hibi (POR) 2-6, 6-2, 6-3
32 Rikuto Yamaguchi (UW) def. Brown (POR) 7-6 (1), 6-4
16 (4) Penzlin (POR) def. Jack Pulliam (UW) 6-2, 6-1
16 Luke Vandecasteele (UO) def. Yoshida (POR) 6-4, 2-6, 7-5
16 (3) Nedim Suko (UW) def. Tvedt (POR) 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3)
16 Oliver Andersson (GON) def. Neos (POR) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
QF (4) Penzlin (POR) vs. Han-Chih Lin (UW)

Consolation Singles
C Oberg def. Jayden Harrison (SU) 6-2, 6-1

Doubles
32 Yoshida/Hibi (POR) def. Paz/Meuller (EWU) 8-1
16 Yoshida/Hibi (POR) def. Torocsik/Pulliam (UW) 8-7 (2)
16 Oberg/Brown (POR) def. Shugar/Klov-Nilsson (UO) 8-6
16 Penzlin/Tvedt (POR) def. De Vries/Fernandez (PSU) 8-1
16 (2) Sema Pankin/Neos (POR) def. Dillon/Thomas (EWU) 8-3
QF Yoshida/Hibi (POR) vs. (1) Matsushita/Vandecasteele (UO)
QF Oberg/Brown (POR) vs. Lin/Yamaguchi (UW)
QF Penzlin/Tvedt (POR) vs. (3) Hollingworth/Trkulja (GON)
QF (2) Pankin/Neos (POR) vs. Hann/Gomez Galvan (GON)