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GREELEY, Colo. — The Portland State men's tennis team lost a heartbreaker to Northern Colorado Saturday, losing 4-3 after winning the doubles point.
 
The Vikings (5-5, 2-3 Big Sky) went up 1-0 after securing the doubles point with wins at lines one and two doubles, but then lost four of six singles matches to the Bears (4-8, 1-4 Big Sky), snapping the Vikings' three-match win streak in the process.
 
Things started out on a positive not for the Vikings, as Senior Stuart Tierney and junior Ian Risenhoover wrapped up a 6-3 win over the Bears' Ben Gendron and Austin Mayo at line one doubles. Juniors Matt Pronesti and Wil Cochrane then followed with a tiebreaker win over the Bears' Jordan Loughnan and Cassell King at line two, giving the Vikings the doubles point in their fourth straight match.
 
Saturday's doubles-point victory improves the Vikings to 8-2 in doubles points this season, including a perfect 5-0 record in conference matches.
 
Unfortunately for the Vikings, heartbreak followed in singles this time around, especially at the top of the singles lineup where a number of tight sets all went the Bears' way.
 
Tierney and sophomore Ethan Lopez each lost a pair of extremely close sets at the top two positions, with Tierney falling 7-6, 6-4 to Gendron at line one, and Lopez falling 6-4, 7-6 to Mayo at line two.
 
Pronesti then lost a close first set, 7-5, to the Bears' Mitchel Knight at line three, and eventually fell 7-5, 6-1. That loss, coupled with junior Brent Wheeler's loss to the Bears' Eric Schuermans at line four gave the Bears all they needed to wrap up the win over the Vikings.
 
Cochrane and Risenhoover, meanwhile, picked up wins for the Vikings at line five and six, extending each of their individual win streaks to four and three matches, respectively. Cochrane beat Loughnan 6-3, 6-3 at line five, while Risenhoover pulled out a close match against the Bears' Jacob Sheldon in a match tiebreaker at line six, 7-6, 1-6, 1-0 (10-3).
 
The Vikings will now look to bounce back as they continue on the road at Idaho State and Weber State next weekend. The Vikings play at Idaho State at 3 p.m. (MT) on March 13, and then face defending Big Sky regular-season champion Weber State at 12 p.m. (MT) on March 14.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings are now 4-4 all-time against Northern Colorado…The Bears have won four straight in the series…The Vikings were going for a program record-tying fourth straight win against the Bears.
 
Northern Colorado 4, Portland State 3
Mar 07, 2015 at Greeley, Colo. (Work Out West) 

Singles competition

1. GENDRON, Ben (UNCO) def. TIERNEY, Stuart (PSU) 7-6, 6-4

2. MAYO, Austin (UNCO) def. LOPEZ, Ethan (PSU) 6-4, 7-6

3. KNIGHT, Mitchel (UNCO) def. PRONESTI, Matt (PSU) 7-5, 6-1

4. SCHUERMANS, Eric (UNCO) def. WHEELER, Brent (PSU) 6-1, 6-1

5. COCHRANE, Wil (PSU) def. LOUGHNAN, Jordan (UNCO) 6-3, 6-3

6. RISENHOOVER, Ian (PSU) def. SHELDON, Jacob (UNCO) 7-6, 1-6, 10-3

 

Doubles competition

1. RISENHOOVER, Ian/TIERNEY, Stuart (PSU) def. GENDRON, Ben/MAYO, Austin (UNCO) 6-3

2. COCHRANE, Wil/PRONESTI, Matt (PSU) def. LOUGHNAN, Jordan/KING, Cassell (UNCO) 7-6

3. SCHUERMANS, Eric/SHELDON, Jacob (UNCO) def. LOPEZ, Ethan/WHEELER, Brent (PSU) 6-2

 

Match Notes

Portland State 5-5, 2-3 Big Sky

Northern Colorado 4-8, 1-4 Big Sky