PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland men's tennis team cruised to a 4-0 sweep of the Pacific Tigers in a West Coast Conference match Saturday at the Louisiana Pacific Tennis Center. The Pilots improve to 9-9 overall and 5-3 in the WCC, while the Tigers drop to 6-15 and 1-6 in league play. Portland also moves to 7-0 this season at home.

The Pilots grabbed the doubles point behind wins from the No. 1 and No. 3 positions. Issa Yoshida and Nicklas Oberg got the team going with a 6-1 win at the No. 3 spot and then the No. 31-ranked tandem of Sema Pankin and Eleftherios Neos clinched with a 7-5 win.

Pankin then dominated Peter Alam at the top of the singles lineup for a 6-0, 6-1 victory. Neos defeated Amar 6-3, 6-2 and then Nicolas Ocana clinched at No. 3 singles with a 6-2, 7-6 win against Aleska Mardjonovic.

"It would've been easy to have a slight letdown today after yesterday's battle," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "We didn't play great in doubles but still took care of business. Sema hasn't been talked about a lot lately because he's not in the clinching matches necessarily, but he is bulldozing people and getting us off to great starts. Lefty was solid and Ocana didn't have his best day but battled through and came back after being down in the second set breaker."

Portland will conclude the regular season by hosting the No. 56-ranked Bulldogs on Saturday at 10 a.m. Live video and scoring links are available at PortlandPilots.com. The WCC Tennis Championships are scheduled for April 28-30 at the Ojai Valley Athletic Club (OVAC) and the Weil Tennis Academy (Weil) in Ojai, Calif. The top six teams in the standings will compete at the event for an automatic NCAA bid. Portland has clinched a spot in the tournament with Saturday's victory.

"We have had a great second half of the season," Gross noted. "I thought there was a moment when one of our top guys, Julien (Penzlin) went down that we could go the other direction, but everyone's done a great job of stepping up. Gonzaga has had a really good season and they are who we play in our last match. I'm sure if there were odds Gonzaga would be favored, but we will compete hard and see where that process takes us."

Portland 4, Pacific 0
Portland, Ore. (Louisiana Pacific Tennis Center)
April 16, 2022

Singles
1. Sema Pankin (POR) def. Peter Alam (PAC) 6-0, 6-1
2. Eleftherios Neos (POR) def. Ran Amar (PAC) 6-3, 6-2
3. Nicolas Ocana (POR) def. Aleska Mardjonovic (PAC) 6-2, 7-6 (6)
4. Issa Yoshida (POR) vs. Brandon Park (PAC) 3-6 unfinished
5. Nikolas Tvedt (POR) vs. Coby McCaig (PAC) 4-1 unfinished
6. Oscar Brown (POR) vs. Manroop Saini (PAC) unfinished
 
Doubles
1. #31 Neos/Pankin (POR) def. Alam/Saini (PAC) 7-5
2. Ocana/Tvedt (POR) vs. Park/Amar (PAC) 5-4 unfinished
3. Nicklas Oberg/Yoshida (POR) def. McCaig/Mardjonovic (PAC) 6-1
 
Match Notes
Portland 9-9, 5-3 WCC
Pacific 6-15, 1-6 WCC
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (1,2,3)