EUGENE, Ore. – Portland led early, but the No. 44-ranked Oregon Ducks pulled out a 4-2 victory in a non-conference men's tennis dual match Sunday afternoon at the Student Tennis Center. The Ducks improve to 7-5 overall, while the Pilots fall to 3-5.

"We had some very good performances today and we struggled in spots," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "Obviously the goal as the season goes along is to try and find as many people pulling in the same direction in terms of peaking at the right moments to pull off some of these tough wins. I think overall we gave ourselves a shot, but we kind f needed everything to go right today and it didn't quite happen. The great thing about tennis is there's always another match around the corner."

Portland earned the doubles point as the No. 49-ranked tandem of Sema Pankin and Eleftherios Neos defeated No. 21 Joshua Charlton and Quinn Vandecasteele in a tiebreaker to clinch. The Pilot No. 3 duo of Nicolas Ocana and Issa Yoshida picked up a 6-4 win against Luke Vandecasteele and Avi Shugar.

Freshman Julien Penzlin cruised at No. 3 singles with a 6-3, 6-3 victory against Ivailo Keremedchiev for Portland's second point.

The Ducks went ahead 3-2 with straight set wins at the No. 2, No. 4 and No. 5 positions. Ryoma Matsushita then clinched the team win with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 win against Ocana at No. 6 singles. Pankin was leading No. 79-ranked Charlton 6-7, 6-4, 3-1 when the match was clinched.


"Sema and Lefty had another very highly ranked doubles win," Gross noted. "Julien did not look like a freshman today. He controlled the match from start-to-finish and played really within himself. Sema was up a break in the third and playing some of the best tennis he's played in the dual match season so far."

Portland will hit the road next week and open West Coast Conference play at BYU on Saturday at noon (PT). The Pilots will then visit Utah State on Sunday at 9 a.m. Visit PortlandPilots.com for complete live coverage and schedule information.

#44 Oregon 4, Portland 2
Eugene, Ore. (Student Tennis Center)
March 13, 2022

Singles
1. Sema Pankin (POR) vs. #79 Joshua Charlton (UO) 6-7 (4), 6-4, 3-1
2. Quinn Vandecasteele (UO) def. Eleftherios Neos (POR) 6-2, 7-6 (6)
3. Julien Penzlin (POR) def. Ivailo Keremedchiev (ORE) 6-3, 6-3
4. Jeser Klov-Nilsson (UO def. Issa Yoshida (POR) 6-2, 6-2
5. Luke Vandecasteele (UO) def. Nikolas Tvedt (POR) 6-3, 6-2
6. Ryoma Matsushita (UO) def. #114 Nicolas Ocana (POR) 4-6, 6-1, 6-1

Doubles
1. #49 Pankin/Neos (POR) def. #21 Charlton/Q. Vandecasteele (UO) 7-6 (7)
2. Keremedchiev/Kadiri (UO) def. Penzlin/Tvedt (POR) 6-4
3. Ocana/Yoshida (POR) def. L. Vandecasteele/Avi Shugar [UO] 6-4

Match Notes
Oregon 7-5
Portland 3-5
Order of Finish: Singles (4,3,5,2,6), Doubles (2,3,1)