FORT WORTH, Texas – The Portland men's tennis team opened the 2022 dual season with a 4-0 loss to No. 4 TCU in the opening round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend event on Saturday.
The Horned Frogs (4-1) featured a singles lineup with four nationally-ranked players and showed why they are one of the top teams in the nation.
TCU claimed the doubles point to open the scoring with 6-2 wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions. Portland's Sema Pankin and Eleftherios Neos were tied 4-4 at No. 1 doubles against Luc Fomba and Jake Fearnley when the Horned Frogs clinched.
The top four singles match began at the indoor facility and No. 33 Lui Maxted doubled the lead with a straight sets win at No. 4 over Nikolas Tvedt. No. 19 Juan Carlos Aguilar knocked off Eleftherios Neos at No.2 singles and then No. 68 Luc Fomba clinched the match against Sema Pankin at the top of the lineup.
Pilot freshman Julien Penzlin took the opening set off Sander Jong at No. 3 singles and just started the third set when the overall match was clinched.
"With three of our six players playing the very first match for the Pilots against the No. 4 team in the country I'd say it went OK," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "The atmosphere was awesome. They had tons of fans who are very supportive of their team and I think our guys kept their composure and did a good job. Most of the time close tennis matches come down to a few big points. Sema had one of those today that would've been nice to have and Julian was playing some really good tennis when he got pulled in the third set of his match. Oscar actually had won the first set of his match before he got pulled at No. 5. I think we are appreciating being down here and experiencing this and we did the best we could to not have negative expectations. I think we need to get a little further down the line before we can necessarily have positive expectations against this level of team, but I feel today was a step in the right direction."
The Pilots will close out the trip on against the Wichita State Shockers, who lost a 4-2 decision to Tulsa on Saturday. Portland and Wichita State will take the court at 9 a.m. (PT) on Sunday. TCU will take on Tulsa for the chance to advent to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
No. 4 TCU 4, Pilots 0
Fort Worth, Texas (Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center)
January 29, 2002
Singles
1. #68 Luc Fomba (TCU) def. Sema Pankin (POR) 7-5, 6-3
2. #19 Juan Carlos Aguilar (TCU) def. Eleftherios Neos (POR) 6-4, 6-2
3. Sander Jong (TCU) vs. Julien Penzlin (POR) 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 unfinished
4. #33 Lui Maxted (TCU) def. Nikolas Tvedt (POR) 6-3, 6-2
5. #76 Jake Fearnley (TCU) vs. Oscar Brown (POR) unfinished
6. Tim Ruehl (TCU) vs. Nicolas Ocana (POR) unfinished
Doubles
1. Fomba/Fearnley (TCU) vs. Pankin/Neos (POR) 4-4 unfinished
2. Jong/Maxted (TCU) def. Penzlin/Tvedt (POR) 6-2
3. Aguilar/Ruehl (TCU) def. Ocana/Brown (POR) 6-2
Order of Finish: Doubles (2,3); Singles (4,2,1)
Team Records
No. 4 TCU 4-1
Portland 0-1
