Box Score SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Santa Clara men's tennis team claimed a 5-2 win against the Portland Pilots on Saturday at the Degheri Tennis Center on the Santa Clara campus. The Broncos (5-6, 2-3 WCC) took the doubles point and carried the momentum into singles play to move into a tie in the West Coast Conference standings with the Pilots (8-5, 2-3).
Juniors Sema Pankin and Nicklas Oberg earned singles wins for Portland's two points. Pankin defeated Mann Shah 6-4, 6-4 at the top of the lineup, while Oberg pulled out a three-set super tiebreaker against Guilllaume Dalmasso at No. 4 singles.
Santa Clara won the other four singles matches in straight sets.
"It was a fairly disappointing weekend," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "The reality is that we are not any better or worse tennis players right now than we have been we beat San Diego, Cal Poly and some of the other really good teams have beaten this year. We are just slow adjusting to the conditions of outdoor tennis. I'm sure some of those other teams were slow adjusting to the conditions of indoor tennis. If we are ever going to be a great team, then we will have to overcome those conditions. The only team that has done it in our conference consistently in recent history has been San Diego. The rest of us generally trade back-and-forth taking advantage of our home conditions."
Portland has dropped all three of its outdoor matches this spring. In addition to Saturday's defeat, the Pilots lost a 4-2 decision at San Francisco on Friday in high winds and also fell 6-1 at Washington earlier this year outdoors.
"We continue to learn more on these trips about where the edges are that we aren't finding," Gross said. "Hopefully we go home and are better for it. Sema did a good job today figuring that out and we have other guys trying very hard, but we need to try hard and smart."
Portland will return for the final two home matches of the 2021 season next weekend at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center. The Pilots host Pepperdine on Friday at 11 a.m. and then welcome Loyola Marymount on Sunday at 10 a.m. Both matches will have live video and scoring at PortlandPilots.com.
Santa Clara 5, Portland 2
Santa Clara, Calif. (Degheri Tennis Center)
April 10, 2021
Singles
1. Sema Pankin (POR) def. Mann Shah (SCU) 6-4, 6-4
2. Dominic Barretto (SCU) def. Eleftherios Neos (POR) 7-6 (5) 7-5
3. Arthur Neuhaus (SCU) def. Issa Yoshida (POR) 6-4, 6-2
4. Nicklas Oberg (POR) def. Guillaume Dalmasso (SCU) 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (8)
5. Santiago Hinojosa (SCU) def. Nikolas Tvedt (POR) 6-4, 6-3
6. Vasileios Iliopoulos (SCU) def. Leo Hibi (POR) 6-2, 6-4
Doubles
1. Iliopoulos/Neuhaus (SCU) def. Neos/Yoshida (POR) 6-3
2. Barretto/Dalmasso (SCU) vs. Pankin/Tvedt (POR) 6-5 unfinished.
3. Nick Cmager/Matthew Rodriguez (SCU) def. Oberg/Hibi (POR) 6-3
Match Notes
Portland 8-5, 2-3 WCC
Santa Clara 5-6, 2-3 WCC
Order of Finish: (Singles: 1,5,3,6,2,4; Doubles: 3,1)
