Complete match notes with statistics (PDF)

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland State women's tennis team (1-2) returns home for a pair of matches this weekend, including the team's Big Sky opener against Montana State Saturday. The Vikings first play Lewis & Clark at 5 p.m. Friday at Club Green Meadows in Vancouver, Wash., then return to Club Green Meadows for their match against the Bobcats at 5 p.m. Saturday.
 
SCOUTING LEWIS & CLARK:
The Lewis & Clark Pioneers will open their 2015 season with their match against the Vikings Friday. The Pioneers are coming off a 3-11 season in 2014, when they went 1-5 in the NCAA Division III Northwest Conference. The Pioneers lost All-NWC second-team selection Olivia Sweetman off last year's team, but return All-NWC first-team selection Claudia Lew. Lew went 7-7 at line one last season, by far the best record of any Pioneer player last season. Lew also played at line one in doubles, going 2-4 with Sweetman, 2-3 with Makena McCluskey and 1-2 with Esa Grigsby. Overall, the Pioneers have a very young roster, as seven of the team's 10 players are freshmen this season.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES VERSUS LEWIS & CLARK:
The Vikings lead the all-time series versus Lewis & Clark, 8-6. The Vikings have won six in a row in the series, as they haven't lost to the Pioneers since 2001. However, the Vikings trail 1-3 at home in the series, though the Vikings have only played one home match against the Pioneers since 1998.
 
SCOUTING MONTANA STATE:
The Vikings' match against the Montana State Bobcats (1-2) will be a rematch of the teams' quarterfinal match at last season's Big Sky Tournament. The Vikings won that match, 4-2, for their first win ever against Montana State. The Vikings' win in the conference tournament came after Montana State beat the Vikings, 7-0, in the regular season. Meanwhile, the Bobcats won their first match of the 2015 season last weekend, as they beat Montana State-Billings 7-0. That win followed back-to-back losses to Seattle and Gonzaga to open the season. The Bobcats went 9-11 overall last season, and 6-4 in the Big Sky Conference. The Bobcats return All-Big Sky honorable mention Laura Middel off that team, but lose All-Big Sky second-team selection Paulina Lopez. The Bobcats also have a young team overall, as seven of the team's eight players are underclassmen, with six of those players being sophomores. Middel, one of the team's sophomores, has opened the season at No. 1 singles for the Bobcats, and has gone 1-2 at the position so far. Fellow sophomore Jessica Brycki also has a 2-0 record at line two, while the team's lone freshman, Angelina Phillipova, has a 1-1 record at line three. Additionally, Middel has teamed with three different players at line one doubles, going 1-0 with Phillipova and Liana Bates, and 0-1 with Brycki. Brycki and Molly Crum, meanwhile, have a 1-1 record at line two.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES VERSUS MONTANA STATE:
The Vikings broke through with their first win over Montana State in the Big Sky Tournament last season. The Bobcats still lead the series, 1-7, however, and have never lost to the Vikings during the regular season. The Bobcats have also never lost to the Vikings on the road, though Portland State came close to beating the Bobcats in their last home match against them, a 4-3 decision in 2013.
 
VIKINGS SPLIT ROAD TRIP TO NO. 57 WASHINGTON STATE, LEWIS-CLARK STATE:
The Vikings split their road trip to No. 57 Washington State and Lewis-Clark State last weekend, falling to the nationally ranked Cougars, 6-1, before beating the Warriors, 4-3, for the team's first win of the 2015 season. The Vikings first faced the Cougars on Friday, and only senior Megan Govi was able to pull out a win for the Vikings, as she came back to win in a match tiebreaker after dropping the first set of her match at line six. The Vikings had better success against the Warriors on Saturday, though, as the Vikings swept all three doubles matches en route to the 4-3 win. The doubles-point victory proved decisive for the Vikings in the match, as the teams' split the six singles matches, 3-3, with sophomore Tracy Dong, sophomore Sabina-Elena Preda and senior Alexa McDonald winning for the Vikings at lines two, three and six, respectively.
 
LOOKING AHEAD:
The Vikings head back out on the road for a Feb. 13 match at Seattle, before returning home for a conference match against Montana State on Feb. 15. The Vikings host Montana at Club Green Meadows in Vancouver, Wash., at 10 a.m. (PT).
 
HISTORY MAKERS:
Senior Megan Govi's win over Washington State's Grace Lymer-Sullivan last Friday pushed Govi further into the all-time lead in career singles wins, as she now has 35 wins in her Portland State career, eight more than any other player in the Vikings' program since the records date back to the 1995 season. Fellow senior Alexa McDonald also moved closer to the all-time win leaders with her win over Lewis-Clark State's Deanri Human Saturday, as she now has 25 wins in her career, ranking her two wins away from moving into a tie for second all-time with Leinani McAneney and Marti Pellicano. Sophomore Kelsey Frey can also move up the career ranks this season, as she ranks tied for 12th all-time with 13 career wins. Meanwhile, in doubles, Govi ranks just two wins behind all-time leader Anya Dalkin, who set the record with 30 doubles wins from 2008-11. Frey, meanwhile, ranks 10th all-time with 15 career doubles wins, and will move into a tie for eighth all-time with two more wins.
 
CHALLENGING SCHEDULE:
The Vikings set up a challenging schedule for themselves in 2015, as the team searches for a return trip to the Big Sky Tournament. In order to do that, the Vikings will have to do seven things they have never done before as a program. The Vikings have never beaten Montana, Montana State or Sacramento State during the regular season, and have never beaten Northern Colorado, Northern Arizona, Weber State or Southern Utah on the road. Those seven matches make up the majority of the team's 11-match Big Sky schedule, meaning the Vikings will have to check some of those boxes off their to-do list in order to reach the conference tournament again this season.
 
DEPTH OF RETURNERS:
The Vikings return five of their six singles players from their historic 2014 season, including All-Big Sky first-team selection Dané Vorster, who played at No. 1 singles and doubles for the Vikings last season. Senior Megan Govi also returns for the Vikings after earning All-Big Sky honorable mention honors last season, a season in which she became the all-time singles wins leader at Portland State. Senior Alexa McDonald, the all-time wins leader at No. 5 and 6 singles for the Vikings, also returns this season, as well as sophomore Sabina-Elena Preda and junior Ayaka Terakawa. Additionally, the Vikings get back sophomore Kelsey Frey, who had to sit out the entire 2014 season due to an injury but had a highly successful freshman season in 2013.
 
NEWCOMERS:
In addition to their deep class of returners, the Vikings also added three talented newcomers in sophomore transfer Tracy Dong and freshmen Siena Peri and Alana Chaplin. Peri, a four-star recruit coming out of high school, should challenge for a top spot in the Vikings' singles lineup after a successful fall season that saw her win the back draw of the Beach Tennis Fall Invitational and play doubles with No. 1 doubles player Dané Vorster. Dong, meanwhile, should also challenge for a spot in the Vikings' lineup, as she comes to the Vikings out of the University of Missouri, where she faced some of the top competition in the nation within the SEC. Chaplin, finally, adds a lot of experience in Division I athletics even as a freshman, as she's the daughter of Oregon State head and associate head gymnastics coaches Tanya and Michael Chaplin.
 
FALL SEASON RECAP:
The Vikings played in four tournaments during their 2014 fall season, and went 26-30 combined as a team in singles, and 11-19 combined in doubles while playing 12 different doubles pairings. Sophomore Sabina-Elena Preda had the best singles record for the Vikings in the fall, as she went 4-1 over the last two tournaments of the season. Senior Megan Govi also went 4-3 for the Vikings in singles, while newcomers Tracy Dong and Siena Peri went 5-5 and 4-4, respectively. Peri also won the back draw of the Beach Tennis Fall Invitational, and posted a 4-2 record with junior Dané Vorster in doubles.
 
2014 SEASON RECAP:
The Vikings posted their most successful season to date in 2014, as they qualified for the Big Sky Tournament for the first time in program history, finishing fourth in the conference during the regular-season with a program-best 6-3 record in Big Sky play. Then-sophomore Dané Vorster led the Vikings with a 5-3 record in Big Sky play at No. 1 singles, and recorded a 6-2 record at No. 2 doubles with then-junior Megan Govi. Vorster was named to the All-Big Sky first team for her efforts after the season, while Govi was named an All-Big Sky honorable mention. Additionally, Govi made history herself in 2014, as she became the all-time singles wins leader at Portland State during the season.