PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland men's tennis improved to 4-0 at home with Sunday's 6-1 victory over the Montana State Bobcats at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center. The Pilots improve to 4-2 overall on the season with the victory.

The hard-fought match was tight from start-to-finish beginning with the doubles matches. The Bobcats (5-5) earned the 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles, but the Pilots bounced back as Oscar Brown and Stefan Skobelev picked up a 7-5 win at No. 2. The third and final doubles match went to a tiebreaker and Nicolas Ocana and Nikola Keremedchiev fought off numerous match points to pull out the 10-8 win and secure the point for Portland.

Brown doubled the Pilot lead with a 6-3, 6-2 win at the top of the singles lineup against Max Relic. Ocana followed with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 win at No. 2 over Dario Ciobotaru, but the Bobcats got on the board with a three-set win at No. 3 from Andras Necz.

Portland got the clinch courtesy of Maxim Groysman at No. 4 singles. He won another three-setter, defeating Rayen Hermassi 6-4, 3-6, 6-0.

The Pilots completed the scoring with straight set wins at No. 5 and No. 6 singles from Keremedchiev and Skobelev, respectively. Keremedchiev is a pervect 5-0 in dual matches and now has won seven straight singles matches. Skobelev, just a freshman, also has six straight singles wins.

"We had a really long weekend with three matches in three days," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said, "and Montana State competed really hard today, but we need to keep our level higher more consistently. Our conference is as tough as it has been in years, with a couple of teams ranked high in the country and several others knocking on the door. I want to see more of the things that we do during the week show up in our matches. I have seen some great tennis Monday through Thursday at times, but we need to bring it a little stronger on match days."

The Pilots will be back in action March 2-3 with a pair of matches in Irvine, Calif. Portland faces UC Riverside in a neutral site match on Saturday and then plays at host UC Irvine on Sunday.

Portland 6, Montana State 1
Portland, Ore. (Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center)
February 25, 2024

Singles
1. Oscar Brown (POR) def. Max Relic (MSU) 6-3, 6-2
2. Nicolas Ocana (POR) def. Dario Ciobotaru (MSU) 6-3, 5-7, 6-2
3. Andras Necz (MSU) def. Luka Vukovic (POR) 6-2, 2-6, 6-3
4. Maxim Groysman (POR) def. Rayen Hermassi (MSU) 6-4, 3-6, 6-0
5. Nikola Keremedchiev (POR) def. Andre Stewart (MSU) 6-3, 6-1
6. Stefan Skobelev (POR) def. Jacob Huppin (MSU) 6-4, 6-2

Doubles
1. Necz/Relic (MSU) def. Vukovic/Nikolas Tvedt (POR) 6-4
2. Brown/Skobelev (POR) def. Hermassi/Stewart (MSU) 7-5
3. Ocana/Keremedchiev (POR) def.  Ciobotaru/Kanika Jayathilake (MSU) 7-6

Match Notes:
Montana State 5-5
Portland 4-2
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (1,3,2,4,5,6)
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