MALIBU, Calif.  – The Portland men's tennis pushed the No. 22-ranked Pepperdine Waves, but came up short in a 4-1 loss at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center on Saturday. The Pilots drop to 7-9 overall and 3-3 in West Coast Conference play with the victory, while the Waves improve to 12-5 and 4-0 in league play.

"We played a heck of a match today," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "Pepperdine is an excellent team. We would've needed a few more things to go right but that is about as close as a team of our level gets to a top 20 team on the road without getting the victory."

Portland continued the momentum from a strong Friday comeback win at Loyola Marymount into Saturday's match. The Pilots claimed the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2. Sema Pankin and Eleftherios Neos defeated Daniel De Jonge and Eero Vasa 6-4 at the top spot and then Nicolas Ocana and Nikolas Tvedt clinched with a 6-3 win against Andrew Rogers and Corrado Summaria at No. 2.

Portland continued to play excellent tennis to open singles play. The Pilots won four of the six opening sets, but ran out of gas as the Waves finished strong.

Pepperdine picked up a comfortable win at the No. 6 position to even the score and then No. 15-ranked De Jonge held off Pankin 6-4, 6-4 at the top of the lineup to make it 2-1 Waves.

The remaining four matches all went to a third set. Summaria beat Tvedt 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 at No. 5 and then Vasa clinched with a 5-7, 6-1 ,6-3 defeat of Ocana at No. 3 to complete the scoring.

Portland was leading in the two unfinished matches as Neos was up 4-3 in the third set against No. 48 Tim Zeitvogel and Issa Yoshida was leading the No. 88-ranked Rogers 1-0 in the third when play was stopped.

"Lefty was actually up a break in the third when the match was called," Gross noted. "I'm really proud of the effort today. We weren't coming out here looking for any excuses. We just battled and came up a little short against very good team."

The Pilots will conclude the regular season with three home matches over the next two weeks. Portland welcomes Saint Mary's on Friday at 9:30 a.m. and then Pacific on Saturday at 10 a.m. The Pilots and Gonzaga will meet on Saturday, April 23 at 10 a.m. All matches will be played at the Louisiana Pacific Tennis Center live coverage links available at PortlandPilots.com.
 
No. 22 Pepperdine 4, Portland 1
Malibu, Calif. (Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center)
April 8, 2022

Singles
1. #15 Daniel De Jonge (PEP) def. Sema Pankin (POR) 6-4, 6-4
2.  #48 Tim Zeitvogel (PEP) vs. Eleftherios Neos (POR) 3-6, 6-4, 3-4 unfinished
3. Eero Vasa (PEP) def. Nicolas Ocana (POR) 5-7, 6-1, 6-3
4. #88 Andrew Rogers (PEP) vs. Issa Yoshida (POR) 5-7, 7-5, 0-1 unfinished
5. Corrado Summaria (PEP) def. Nikolas Tvedt (POR) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
6. Enrique Rico Luque (PEP) def. Oscar Brown (POR) 6-0, 6-1

Doubles
1. #24 Neos/Pankin (POR) def. De Jonge/Vasa (PEP) 6-4
2. Ocana/Tvedt (POR) def. Rogers/Summaria (PEP) 6-3
3. Luque/Zeitvogel (PEP) def. Yoshida/Oberg (POR) 6-2

Match Notes:
Portland 7-9, 3-3 WCC
Pepperdine 12-5, 4-0 WCC
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (6,1,5,3)