Box Score LOGAN, Utah – The Portland Pilots earned a thrilling 4-3 victory over Utah State in a non-conference men's tennis dual match Sunday afternoon at the Sports Academy and Racquet Club. The Pilots improve to 4-6 on the year while the Aggies fall to 6-8.

The match came down to No. 5 singles where Portland's Nicolas Ocana fought off four match points to earn the 0-6, 7-5, 7-6 victory over Roko Savin.

Sema Pankin and Julien Penzlin also picked up straight sets singles wins for Portland to extend their winning streaks to five and seven matches, respectively.

"Incredible effort today," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "It's very rare to save entire dual match points, but Nicolas Ocana saved four in the deciding match to win 7-6 in 3rd after being down 5-2 in the set. Mathieu (Garcia) did an amazing job working him through the deciding match. It's also very rare that every single player tangibly contributed a win in a 4-3 result. We started out playing very good doubles. Sema and Julien continued to be anchors for us in singles."

Portland opened the match by taking the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3. Eleftherios Neos and Issa Yoshida combined for a 6-3 win at the top of the order, while Pankin and Nikolas Tvedt clinched with a 7-5 win at No. 2.

Utah State picked up singles wins from Bodin Zarkovic, Sergi Mico Fenollar and Javier Ruiz.

"This weekend and next week in San Diego are the most challenging part of our schedule," Gross added. "You couldn't have two more different conditions then Utah and San Diego. It feels good to get a gritty win in difficult conditions."

Portland will hit the road again next week to face West Coast Conference foe San Diego on Friday at noon. The Pilots will then visit San Diego State for a non-league matchup on Saturday at noon.

Utah State 4, Portland 3
Logan, Utah (Sports Academy and Racquet Club)
March 20, 2022

Singles
1. Sema Pankin (POR) def. David Cierny (USU) 7-6, 6-3
2. Bodin Zarkovic (USU) def. Eleftherios Neos (POR) 6-3, 6-7, 6-4
3. Julien Penzlin (POR) def. Felipe Acosta (USU) 6-3, 6-4
4. Sergi Mico Fenollar (USU) def. Issa Yoshida (POR) 6-2, 7-6
5. #114 Nicolas Ocana (POR) def. Roko Savin (USU) 0-6, 7-5, 7-6
6. Javier Ruiz (USU) def. Nikolas Tvedt (POR) 6-2, 6-3

Doubles
1. Neos/Yoshida (POR) def. Jack Ninteman/Ruiz (USU) 6-3
2. Pankin/Tvedt (POR) def. Acosta/Zarkovic (USU) 7-5
3. Cierny/Savin (USU) def. Ocana/Penzlin (USU) 6-2

Match Notes
Order of Finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (3,1,4,2,6,5)