PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland women's tennis team beat the San Francisco Dons 5-2 on Saturday at the Goldman Tennis Center. The Pilots defeated Santa Clara on Thursday and will to complete a three-match Bay Area road sweep at Saint Mary's on Monday.

"It was a great day of tennis for us," Portland head coach Filip Zivkovic said. "We played one of the best matches of the season against an opponent that is very difficult to play at home. I was impressed with how we competed. We had a lot of close games in doubles and managed our nerves extremely well to capitalize on those opportunities."

The Pilots (9-7, 2-1 WCC) set the tone with a dominant display during doubles. Iva Zelic and Sally Pethybridge cruised to a 6-2 win at No. 1 and Alaia Rubio Perez and Rimona Rouf clinched 6-2 at No. 3. Portland's No. 2 tandem of Aleksandra Dimitrijevic and Meagan Pearson were leading 5-2 when the point was clinched.

The visitors took care of business early in singles with a trio of straight set wins to clinch the overall victory. Rouf was a 6-1, 6-4 winner at No. 5 over Alicia Yue, Dimitrijevic defeated Azaria Hayes 6-1, 6-3 at No. 4 and then Pethybridge clinched by beating Hana Gamracy 6-4, 6-2 at No. 2. Zelic completed Portland's scoring with a 10-3 super tiebreaker win against Katerina Filip at the top of the lineup.

"Singles was a battle start-to-finish," Zivkovic said. "Rimona and Aleks are continuing to play at a high level, showing so much maturity in their game and peaking at the right time. Sally clinched it for us today and slayed some of the demons with her performance today. She played at an extraordinary level against an opponent who pushed her to the limits and showed a tremendous amount of resilience. Iva put an exclamation point on a match with a dominant match breaker."

Portland will take Easter Sunday off before visiting Saint Mary's on Monday at 11 a.m. The teams were rained out on Friday.

"I am extremely proud of this group," Zivkovic noted. "Winning against these Northern California teams, outdoors, is an extremely difficult task and this group has managed to do it back-to-back on the same weekend. This was a big moment for the program."

Portland 5, San Francisco 2
San Francisco, Calif. (Goldman Tennis Center)
March 30, 2024

Singles
1. Iva Zelic (POR) def. Katerina Filip (USF) 6-4, 4-6, 10-3
2. Sally Pethybridge (POR) def. Hana Gamracy (USF) 6-4, 6-2
3. Erin Richardson (USF) def. Alaia Rubio Perez (POR) 6-1, 4-6, 10-0
4. Aleksandra Dimitrijevic (POR) def. Azaria Hayes (USF) 6-1, 6-3
5. Rimona Rouf (POR) def. Alicia Yue (USF) 6-1, 6-4
6. Julia Visaya (USF) def. Meagan Pearson (POR) 7-5, 6-0

Doubles
1. Zelic/Pethybridge (POR) def. Gamracy/Richardson (USF) 6-2
2. Dimitrijevic/Pearson (POR) vs. Filip/Hayes (USF) 5-2, unfinished
3. Rubio Perez/Rouf (POR) def. Qianer Qiu/Visaya (USF) 6-2

Match Notes:
San Francisco 3-10, 0-2 WCC
Portland 9-7, 2-1 WCC

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