LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Portland men's tennis came out firing on day one of the SoCal Intercollegiate Championships Thursday as five Pilots advanced to the Round of 16 with wins in singles action.

Oscar Brown and Sema Pankin cruised to straight set wins over Cal Poly opponents Colter Smith and Joseph Leather, respectively. Nicolas Ocana defeated UCLA's Stefan Leustian 6-2, 6-4, while Eleftherios Neos pulled out a 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 win against Biola's Alesey Prokopchuk and Nikolas Tvedt came back for a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory versus Conrad Brown of UC Santa Barbara.

"We had a good day at the tournament today," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "We won five out of the seven singles matches that we played. Sema and Lefty took care of their business which was kind of expected, but it was a really good day for Tvedt, Ocana and Brown. They all stepped up and had nice wins against lineup players at good schools. Our two freshmen both lost close three setters, but they are definitely showing progress and improvement."

Pilot true freshmen Fabian Gusic and Cade Fernando each dropped tight opening round matches in third set tiebreakers to open the tournament.

Play continues on Friday with Round of 16 doubles action and two more rounds of singles. The tournament concludes with semifinal matches on Saturday and title matches on Sunday. Live video coverage of the matches is available via USCTrojans.com.

Southern California Intercollegiate Championships
Los Angeles, Calif. (David X. Marks Tennis Stadium)
Oct. 27-30, 2022

Singles
64 Charles Qian (UCSD) def. Fabian Gusic (POR) 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (7)
64 Alexander Edmonston (CUI) def. Cade Fernando (POR) 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (9)
32 Oscar Brown (POR) def. Colter Smith (CP) 6-0, 6-2
32 Eleftherios Neos (POR) def. Alexey Prokopchuk (BIOLA) 7-5, 4-6, 6-1
32 Nikolas Tvedt (POR) def. Conrad Brown (UCSB) 2-6, 6-4, 6-2
32 Nicolas Ocana (POR) def. Stefan Leustian (UCLA) 6-2, 6-4
32 #120 (2) Sema Pankin (POR) def. Diogo Tinoco (UCSD) 6-0, 7-5
16 Brown (POR) vs. #67 (1) Phillip Jordan (UCSB) Friday, 11 AM
16 Neos (POR) vs. (7) Aadarsh Tripathi (UCLA) Friday, 11 AM
16 Tvedt (POR) vs. #104 (3) Noah Berry (CP) Friday, 11 AM
16 Ocana (POR) vs. (6) Pablo Masjuan (UCSB) Friday, 12:30 PM
16 #120 (2) Pankin (POR) vs. Joseph Leather (CP) Friday, 12:45 PM

Doubles
16 Brown/Tvedt (POR) vs. James Caddies/Mike Jansen (CUI) Friday, 10 AM
16 Gusic/Ocana (POR) vs. Leyton Bohren/Miha Velicki (APU) Friday, 10 AM
16 Issa Yoshida/Fernando (POR) vs. (3) Jordan/Brown (UCSB) Friday, 10 AM
16 #10 (2) Pankin/Neos (POR) vs. Berry/Leather (CP), Friday, 10 AM