POCATELLO, Idaho – The Portland State women's tennis team earned its first Big Sky conference win of the year as the team defeated the Idaho State Bengals, 5-2, in Pocatello, Idaho, Saturday morning. The Viks went undefeated in doubles play while tallying four singles wins to improve to 6-5 overall and tally a 1-1 conference mark.

The Viks came out aggressive in doubles as the No. 1 team of Nayanatara Vadali and Marina Todd put their foot on the gas and never let up. The PSU tandem downed Laura Thues and Wiebke Boekmann in quick 8-1 romp.

With the Viks up 1-0, the No. 2 team of Mandy Mallen and Marti Pellicano began to pull away against Marian Tangrife and  Madelyn Weltzin after an early deadlock at 3-3. The duo ultimately gained steam and never looked back, not allowing their opponents another game and winning the match 8-3.

With the doubles point decided, the No. 3 doubles contest of Kelsey Frey and Megan Govi vs. Svenja Tegtmeir and Kasey Bacon was forced to discontinue with Portland State holding a 5-4 edge.

With the doubles point in hand PSU turned to its singles play to carry the day.                                                   

Govi was the first to get on the board with a singles victory, overcoming a 5-2 deficit in the first set to fight back and take the frame, 7-5. With an emotional come-from-behind victory the momentum stayed on Govi's side the rest of the way as she took the second set, 6-2, pushing the Viking lead to 2-0.

The Bengals struck back on court No. 1 as Tangrife defeated Mallen, 6-3, 7-5, cutting the lead to 2-1 in the match.

Frey got back in the win column in singles from the No. 3 spot as she put in a strong effort against Weltzin, downing her Bengals opponent, 6-3, 6-4 to make it 3-1.

In what was PSU's hardest fought match of the afternoon, Todd found herself entrenched in a battle with Bacon in the No. 2 position. The junior fell in a hard fought first set to the tune of 6-4, but rebounded nicely in the second frame, with a dominating 6-2 score. In the third set Todd appeared to be in the driver's seat, jumping out to a 5-1 lead in the deciding stanza. To her credit Bacon never gave and up and ground out four-straight points to knot it up at 5-5. Despite a gutsy performance, Todd eventually fell in her second-straight third-set heartbreaker by a final score of 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.

With the Bengals only trailing 3-2, eyes turned to courts No. 5 and No. 6.

The match was won eventually won in spot No. 6 as Alexa McDonald defeated Theus, 6-3, 6-4, to clinch the match for Portland State. The win ties McDonald for the longest current winning streak on the team with four-straight victories.

Pellicano put the icing on the cake for PSU from the No. 5 spot working her opponent, Boeckmann to a 6-3, 6-4 victory, giving the Vikings a 5-2 wins.
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The Vikings will attempt to pick up their second weekend sweep of the season, when they play Weber State in Ogden, Utah tomorrow morning. The match is slated for 9 a.m. MST.