PORTLAND, Ore. – The No. 55 Santa Clara men's tennis team handed Portland its first home loss with a 5-2 decision Friday at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center. Portland concludes the regular season 9-9 overall, 3-5 in WCC matches and 8-1 at home this year. The Broncos improve to 16-6 and 3-4 in league play.

Portland took the early lead by winning the doubles point. Santa Clara won 6-3 at No. 1, but the Pilot tandem of Nicolas Ocana and Nikola Keremedchiev picked up a 6-2 win at No. 2 and then Oscar Brown and Stefan Skobelev clinched the point with a 6-3 victory at No. 3.

Santa Clara took back the momentum by winning the first wave of singles. Christian Lerby and Luca Lemaitre Vilchis won in straight sets at No. 1 and No. 3, while Guillaume Dalmasso held off Nicolas Ocana by a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 margin at No. 2.

The Broncos clinched when Keremedchiev was forced to retire due to injury early in the opening set at No. 5 singles.

Maxim Groysman picked up another win for Portland at No. 4 with a 7-5, 6-2 decision over Sebastian Buxman. Skobelev retired late in a third set super tiebreaker against Alexander Watanabe Eriksson to give SCU the final point.

"Full credit to Santa Clara, they were the better team today," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "We played some good doubles and some decent tennis in spots. Max had another good performance. It's just tough right now because the top four teams in the conference have been our final four matches, with today being the only one at home. We finished with four straight losses, so our confidence is taking a bit of a beating. Hopefully we can get in the conference tournament and make a little noise."

The Pilots will now wait and see if they will qualify for the 2024 WCC Tournament held April 23-25 at the Aztec Tennis Center on the San Diego State University campus. The top six teams in the standings qualify for the tournament.

#55 Santa Clara 5, Portland 2
Portland, Ore. (Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center)
April 19, 2024

Singles
1. #118 Christian Lerby (SCU) def. Oscar Brown (POR) 6-3, 6-4
2. Guillaume Dalmasso (SCU) def. Nicolas Ocana (POR) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
3. Luca Lemaitre Vilchis (SCU) def. Luka Vukovic (POR) 6-3, 6-4
4. Maxim Groysman (POR) def. Sebastian Buxman (SCU) 7-5, 6-2
5. Lukas Maskow (SCU) def. Nikola Keremedchiev (POR) 3-1, retired
6. Alexander Watanabe Eriksson (SCU) def. Stefan Skobelev (POR) 7-6 (3), 6-7 (8), 6-7, retired

Doubles
1. Dalmasso/Lerby (SCU) def. Vukovic/Nikolas Tvedt (POR) 6-3
2. Ocana/Keremedchiev (POR) def. Buxman/Maskow (SCU) 6-2
3. Brown/Skobelev (POR) def. Tiago Boschmans/ Lemaitre (SCU) 6-3

Match Notes:
Santa Clara 16-6, 3-4 WCC; National ranking #55
Portland 9-9, 3-5 WCC
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (3,1,2,5,4,6) Get Your Tickets Now!
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