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VANCOUVER, Wash. — The Portland State women's tennis team fell to the second-place Idaho Vandals Saturday, losing 6-1 in a match that was much closer than the final score indicated.
 
The top four singles matches between the Vikings (9-10, 5-6 Big Sky) and Vandals (13-7, 10-1 Big Sky) all went to three sets or a match tiebreaker, while two of the three doubles matches were also decided by 6-4 scores.
 
"We kept putting ourselves in a position to win. We'd set points up and then shoot ourselves in the foot a little bit," PSU head coach Jay Sterling said. "In all these matches, we were 10 or 12 points away from these going in our favor. I'm okay with that. You keep putting yourself in a position to win and winning will come.
 
"The greatest champions in the world fail. They fail a lot. That's how champions are made. We need to take the same intensity we played with today, and we've got to raise our intensity in practice."
 
The tight matches started in doubles, as the teams played close matches at lines one and three. The Vandals entered the match undefeated in doubles points and 23-3 combined in doubles matches in Big Sky play this season, but ceded the early lead to the Vikings.
 
The Vikings served with 3-1 leads at lines one and three, giving them an early peak at the doubles point. Junior Dané Vorster and freshman Siena Peri staked out the early lead for the Vikings at line one, as they took the lead from the Vandals' Galina Bykova and Emmie Marx in a match where neither team could hold serve. Vorster and Peri held their service game to open the match, but then neither team held again until Bykova and Marx finally held for the first time to draw back even at 4-4. Bykova and Marx broke again after their hold, too, and then served out the match to clinch the doubles point for the Vandals with a 6-4 win.
 
The Vandals also mounted a furious comeback at line three, as Idaho's Lucia Badillos and Beatriz Flores won five of the final six games in the match to beat the Vikings' Kelsey Frey and Ayaka Terakawa, 6-4, and sweep the doubles matches for the Vandals.
 
The close matches continued in singles, especially at the top of the lineup, as the top four matches all went past two sets.
 
Vorster faced Bykova again at line one, and played a dominant first set against the ninth-ranked singles player in the ITA mountain region, beating her 6-1 to take the early lead. However, Bykova, who was also named the 2014 Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year in the Vandals' final season in the WAC, flipped a switch after the first set, and responded with a pair of 6-2 wins in the second and third sets to hand Vorster the loss.
 
Peri also played an extremely close first set against Marx at line two, but lost as Marx came back to win, 7-5. Peri came back with a dominant, 6-2 win in the second set of their match, but Marx found her stroke again in the third set, beating Peri 6-1 to clinch the match.
 
Sophomore Sabina-Elena Preda, meanwhile, pulled out a three-set win for the Vikings at line four, as she mounted a serious comeback in the final frame. Preda trailed the Vandals' Rita Bermudez 4-2 in the third set, but won the final four games to steal the match, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
 
Preda held at 4-2 to start her comeback, then broke Bermudez for the first time in the set to draw back even at 4-4. Preda carried that momentum into another hold that gave her a 5-4 lead, and then capped the comeback with her second straight break.
 
"I prepared myself mentally the whole week for this match," Preda said. "I was prepared to do anything to win, which I did. I think I was stronger mentally, and that made the difference because we were so close."
 
The closest match of the day, however, came at line three, where the Vikings' Tracy Dong slugged it out with the Vandals' Sophie Vickers. Dong broke Vickers with Vickers serving for the first set at 5-4, but then lost the set in a tiebreaker, 7-5. Vickers then broke with Dong leading in the second set to get back on serve at 4-all, but Dong came right back with her own break, and then served out the set at 6-4. Vickers bounced back to take an early lead in the ensuing match tiebreaker, however, and carried that lead to a 10-4 win in the breaker, giving her the 7-6 (5), 4-6, 1-0 (10-4) win.
 
In spite of the loss, the Vikings clinched a spot in the Big Sky tournament Saturday, after Northern Arizona beat Montana State, 4-3. The Vikings will enter the tournament as the No. 6 seed, and will play either Northern Arizona or Montana as the No. 3 seed in the quarterfinals.
 
The Vikings will face either the Lumberjacks or Grizzlies in the quarterfinals at 2 p.m. on April 24.

Idaho 6, Portland State 1
Apr 18, 2015 at Vancouver, Wash. (Club Green Meadows) 

Singles competition

1. BYKOVA, Galina (UI) def. VORSTER, Dane (PSU) 1-6, 6-2, 6-2

2. MARX, Emmie (UI) def. PERI, Siena (PSU) 7-5, 2-6, 6-1

3. VICKERS, Sophie (UI) def. DONG, Tracy (PSU) 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 1-0 (10-4)

4. PREDA, Sabina-Elena (PSU) def. BERMUDEZ, Rita (UI) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4

5. BARCENILLA, Belen (UI) def. FREY, Kelsey (PSU) 6-3, 6-1

6. BADILLOS, Lucia (UI) def. MCDONALD, Alexa (PSU) 6-1, 6-0

 

Doubles competition

1. BYKOVA, Galina/MARX, Emmie (UI) def. VORSTER, Dane/PERI, Siena (PSU) 6-4

2. VICKERS, Sophie/BARCENILLA, Belen (UI) def. DONG, Tracy/PREDA, Sabina-Elena (PSU) 6-0

3. FLORES, Beatriz/BADILLOS, Lucia (UI) def. FREY, Kelsey/TERAKAWA, Ayaka (PSU) 6-4

 

Match Notes

Idaho 13-7, 10-1 BSC

Portland State 9-10, 5-6 BSC

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