PORTLAND, Ore. - The Portland State men's tennis team, coming off its first Big Sky win of the season Feb. 26 over Northern Colorado, will be looking for its second win of the Big Sky season when the Vikings meet Northern Arizona Saturday afternoon in Flagstaff, Ariz.
The Vikings only played one match last weekend, hosting Northern Colorado at Club Green Meadows last Saturday night. PSU made a clean sweep of the competition, 7-0, winning all of their matches in doubles and singles. It was the Viks first Big Sky win of the season and improved the team to 4-7 overall and 1-2 in conference.
The team was led by the dominance of
Chris Rice and
Alex VanDerschelden at Nos. 1 and 2 in singles. Rice made short work of his opponent Ryan Lane, dropping the Bear 6-0 in the first set and 6-2 in the second set. VanDerschelden did not surrender a game to opponent Robbie Edwards, defeating him 6-0, 6-0.
Making his PSU debut in doubles was
Nick Fracchia, a transfer from West Valley-Mission College in Santa Clara, Calif. Fracchia, along with doubles partner
Vetu Mam at No. 3, broke a five-match losing skid at No. 3 doubles and won their match, 8-0.
Similar to last week, the Vikings will only play one match this weekend, Northern Arizona. The Lumberjacks are currently on a nine-match skid and are 2-9 overall this season.
Four of their nine losses have come at the hands of ranked opponents, No. 42 Arizona (7-0), No. 58 New Mexico State (6-1), No. 60 New Mexico (7-0) and No. 66 UNLV (6-1), with its only wins at Scottdale CC (5-2) and a 4-3 triumph versus UC Riverside. Saturday's match will be NAU's first of its Big Sky register.
The Jacks No. 1 player, Hugo Ramadier, is 2-8 so far this season at the position. Josh Brown leads the team in singles wins with five overall, four at No. 6, and is 5-6 this season. In doubles play, the team of David Flodberg and Josh Brown has been the pocket ace with a record of 4-1 this season, 3-1 at No. 3.
Following the match at NAU, the Vikings will have a four week break in action and take on Portland at Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center April 2.
