OJAI, Calif. – The No. 74 Portland men's tennis team defeated the San Francisco Dons by a 4-1 margin in the opening round of the West Coast Conference Championships Thursday at the Ojai Valley Athletic Club. The Pilots – the No. 3 seed in the tournament – advance to face second-seeded and No. 22 Pepperdine in Friday's semifinals at 1:30 p.m.

Portland opened the match by taking the doubles point. The No. 2 doubles tandem of Nicolas Ocana and Nikolas Tvedt won by a 6-3 margin and then the No. 32-ranked No. 1 team of Sema Pankin and Eleftherios Neos clinched with a tiebreak win at the top of the order.

The bottom of Portland's singles lineup was dominant as freshman Oscar Brown doubled the team lead with a 6-3, 6-3 win against David Woodland at the No. 6 position. Tvedt followed with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Mitch Johnson at No. 5 singles.

The Dons (11-13) picked up their lone point at No. 3 singles with a straight sets win from Nil Giraldez, but Issa Yoshida clinched the match for Portland soon after. Yoshida pulled out a 6-3, 6-4 victory versus Stevie Gould to push the Pilots into Friday's semifinals.

"Today was not pretty tennis," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "Conditions were definitely a little unfamiliar. We battled through the doubles point which was big. Issa, Nick Tvedt, and Oscar are so battle tested from being the last matches at home and they are just so sharp right now. They got us all the way home today with straight set wins. We definitely need to raise our level tomorrow to have a chance to beat Pepperdine, but we're going to enjoy today and celebrate making the final four of the  conference tournament."

Live scoring and video of Friday's match will be available on WCCSports.com.

#74 Portland 4, San Francisco 1
Ojai, Calif. (Ojai Valley Athletic Club)
April 28, 2022

Singles
1. Sema Pankin (POR) vs. Phuc Huynh (USF) 5-7, 6-4, unfinished
2. Eleftherios Neos (POR) vs. Nitzan Ricklis (USF) 6-4, 5-6, unfinished
3. Nil Giraldez (USF) def. Nicolas Ocana (POR) 6-3, 6-3
4. Issa Yoshida (POR) def. Stevie Gould (USF) 6-3, 6-4
5. Nikolas Tvedt (POR) def. Mitch Johnson (USF) 6-3, 6-1
6. Oscar Brown (POR) def. David Woodland (USF) 6-3, 6-3

Doubles
1. #32 Neos/Pankin (POR) def. Huynh/Ricklis (USF) 7-6 (5)
2. Ocana/Tvedt (POR) def. Johnson/Giraldez (USF) 6-3
3. Nicklas Oberg/Yoshida (POR) vs. Gould/Nikola Kuraica (USF) 4-5, unfinished

Match Notes:
San Francisco 11-13
Portland 11-9; National ranking #74
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (6,5,3,4)