Box Score PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland Pilots men's tennis team pushed the BYU Cougars to several third sets and tiebreakers but ultimately came up just short, losing 4-3. The loss drops the Pilots to 8-3 on the year and 2-1 in WCC play.
"No one ever likes to lose an incredibly close match," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "It's hard to process so quickly, but I've been doing this long enough to know that we've had enough of these go our way lately that the law of averages sometimes equals out."
Portland took the doubles point in exciting fashion. Eleftherios Neos and Issa Yoshida earned their third straight win in the No. 1 doubles slot, taking down the No. 71 ranked duo of Jack Barnett and Ben Gajardo to earn the first win. The final two doubles matches both went to a tiebreaker, with the clinching point coming from Nikolas Tvedt and Sema Pankin in the No. 2 match. Tvedt sealed it with an ace in the final point, giving the Pilots a 1-0 lead.
BYU took two of the first three singles matches to even the match up at 2-2. Pankin earned a win in the No. 1 singles match in straight sets – his sixth of the year – but the Pilots fell in the following two matches. Neos played hard and forced a third set, but ultimately couldn't take it.
The next line of doubles matches followed a similar pattern. Leo Hibi took a win in the No. 6 singles match to get Portland a 3-2 lead. Nick Oberg went on to fight hard in the No. 4 singles slot, forcing a third set. Oberg forced a tiebreaker in the final set and played hard, but Sam Tullis ultimately came out on top. Mateo Vereau Melendez took down Nikolas Tvedt in the final set 6-2 of the No. 5 singles match, giving BYU a 4-3 win.
"I think the better team won today, but we definitely had some chances," Gross said. "We had some amazing efforts from Sema (Pankin) and Leo (Hibi). And played very well in doubles again. Every single one of the players has come through at some point in the last week or two ... no question we're a better team after today."
Portland will be back on the road next weekend for a pair of WCC matches against the San Francisco Dons and the Santa Clara Broncos. The Pilots will play the Dons on Friday, Apr. 9 at 12 p.m. and the Broncos on Saturday, Apr. 10 at 11 a.m. Check out PortlandPilots.com for live stats and video.
Portland 3, BYU 4
Portland, Ore. | Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center
Apr. 1, 2021
Singles
- Sema Pankin (UP) vs. Sean Hill (BYU) def. 6-4, 6-4
- Jack Barnett (BYU) def. Eleftherio Neos (UP) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
- Ben Gajardo (BYU) def. Issa Yoshida (UP) 6-3, 6-4
- Sam Tullis (BYU) def. Nicklas Oberg (UP) 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (4)
- Mateo Vereau Melendez (BYU) def. Nikolas Tvedt (UP) 7-6 (1), 6-7 (7), 6-2
- Leo Hibi (UP) def. Matheus Leite (BYU) 6-3, 6-4
Doubles
- Neos/Yoshida (UP) def. No. 71 Barnett/Gajardo (BYU) 6-4
- Pankin/Tvedt (UP) def. Hill/Tullis (BYU) 7-6 (6)
- Vereau Melendez/Andrus (BYU) def. Oberg/Hibi (UP) 7-6 (7)
Order of Finish: (Singles: 3,1,2,6,4,5; Doubles: 1,2,3)
