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VANCOUVER, Wash. — Hoping for historic success before the season, the Portland State men's tennis delivered it Saturday, as the Vikings beat the defending Big Sky Tournament-champion Montana Grizzlies 5-2 at Club Green Meadows for the program's first ever win over the perennial-powerhouse Grizzlies.
 
"Today's match was a monumental win," head coach Toby Krauel said. "I think the tough early season matches against Washington, Portland, Idaho and Montana State prepared us for this battle. We have improved as a team since those matches, and it showed today."
 
The Vikings (3-4, 1-2 Big Sky) had been 0-9 previously against Montana (0-3, 0-1 Big Sky), and had lost seven of those nine matches by 6-1 or 7-0 scores.
 
The win over the Grizzlies also came at a crucial time for the Vikings in their season, as they had opened Big Sky play with a couple of close losses to Idaho and Montana State. That left the Vikings 0-2 in conference play going into the match against Montana, which was also the team's final home match before the Vikings head out on a tough, six-week road trip. A third conference loss Saturday would have buried the Vikings down the conference standings, putting in doubt the team's ultimate hope of earning their first ever bid into the Big Sky Tournament at the end of the season.
 
The Vikings quashed that worry with their win Saturday, however, as a win over a conference contender should put them back in contention for a tournament spot.
 
The Grizzlies made them earn the win Saturday, though, as they mounted a comeback in singles to put the match in doubt.
 
The Vikings had opened up a 1-0 lead in the match after winning the doubles point, and won the first set of their matches at lines one, two, four and five in singles. However, the Grizzlies came back to force the matches at lines one and four into a third set, while Montana's Peter Mimnagh-Fleming wrapped up a 6-2, 6-1 win over the Vikings' Brent Wheeler at line three to level the match at 1-1.
 
Sophomore Ethan Lopez came back with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Montana's Semion Branzburg, an All-Big Sky first-team selection last season, at line two, but the Vikings still needed at least one of the two three-set matches to go their way in order to clinch the dual.
 
Things did not start well in the third set at line one or four, either. Montana's Tomasz Soltyka broke the Vikings' Stuart Tierney to open the third set of their match at line one, while Montana's Victor Casadevall opened up a 3-1 lead over junior Matt Pronesti at line four.
 
Tierney immediately broke back in his match against Soltyka, however, and won the next three games afterwards to quickly go up 4-1. Tierney and Soltyka each held their service games after that, before Tierney broke Soltyka a final time to pull out a crucial match for the Vikings, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Tierney has now won two of his three Big Sky matches over All-Big Sky selections from previous seasons, as he beat three-time All-Big Sky first-team selection Niklas Brandes in the team's match against Montana State, while Soltyka was a second-team All-Big Sky honoree last season.
 
Tierney's win also put the Vikings up 3-1 in the dual, with the Vikings leading at lines four and five. Pronesti had come back to take a 4-3 lead in his match at line four at that point, while junior Wil Cochrane broke Montana's Alexandr Rudenco at 5-5 in the second set of their match to give himself a chance to serve it out.
 
Cochrane ultimately claimed the honor of delivering the Vikings' dual-clinching fourth point against Montana, as he pulled out a 7-6 (6), 7-5 win over Rudenco. Cochrane had to battle back twice after losing points on his serve in the first-set tiebreaker against Rudenco, but came back each time to give him the crucial one-set lead.
 
Pronesti, meanwhile, mounted his own comeback in the third set at line four, as he won five of the final six games in the set to win his match against Casadevall 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Pronesti has now won eight of his last 10 singles matches, and leads the Vikings with a 12-6 singles record overall this season.
 
The Vikings' fortitude against the Grizzlies' comeback attempt reverses an early trend for the Vikings in Big Sky play this season. The Vikings had lost each of their first two conference matches to Idaho and Montana State after winning the doubles point, but protected their lead Saturday.
 
The Vikings' doubles-point victory Saturday keeps them a perfect 3-0 in doubles in Big Sky matches so far this season. Lopez and Wheeler beat Casadevall and Rudenco 6-3 at line three for the Vikings, before Tierney and junior Ian Risenhoover closed out the doubles-point victory with their 6-4 win over Soltyka and Mimnagh-Fleming at line one.
 
"Today's win was really a team effort," Krauel said. "All six guys won in either singles or doubles. I am very proud of how hard they have worked, and how hard they fought today."
 
The Vikings will now head out on the road for a six-week road trip, starting with a conference match against North Dakota at 1 p.m. (CT) on Feb. 28.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings improve to 1-9 all-time against Montana with Saturday's win…The Vikings' match against Montana Saturday was their third straight against a conference contender or conference tournament team last season, as Idaho previously was picked to win the conference in the preseason coaches poll, while Montana State was a Big Sky Tournament team after finishing 7-3 last season…The Vikings are now 5-2 in doubles this season, and 3-2 when winning the doubles point.

Portland State 5, Montana 2
Feb 21, 2015 at Vancouver, Wash. (Club Green Meadows) 

Singles competition

1. TIERNEY, Stuart (PSU) def. SOLTYKA, Tomasz (UM) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2

2. LOPEZ, Ethan (PSU) def. BRANZBURG, Semion (UM) 6-3, 6-3

3. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, Pet (UM) def. WHEELER, Brent (PSU) 6-2, 6-1

4. PRONESTI, Matt (PSU) def. CASADEVALL, Victor (UM) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4

5. COCHRANE, Wil (PSU) def. RUDENCO, Alexandr (UM) 7-6 (8-6), 7-5

6. SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) def. RISENHOOVER, Ian (PSU) 6-3, 6-1

 

Doubles competition

1. TIERNEY, Stuart/RISENHOOVER, Ian (PSU) def. SOLTYKA, Tomasz/MIMNAGH-FLEMING, Pet (UM) 6-4

2. BRANZBURG, Semion/SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) def. PRONESTI, Matt/COCHRANE, Wil (PSU) 6-4

3. WHEELER, Brent/LOPEZ, Ethan (PSU) def. CASADEVALL, Victor/RUDENCO, Alexandr (UM) 6-3

 

Match Notes

Montana 0-3, 0-1 BSC

Portland State 3-4, 1-2 BSC

Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (3,2,1,5,4,6)