Complete season recap (PDF)

PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland State head men's tennis coach Toby Krauel felt he had a roster to make history during the 2014-15 season, and that is exactly what the Vikings did, making history on an individual and program level.
 
"The reoccurring theme for the 2014-15 season was improvement, both from the year before and our history," Krauel said. "We had players/teams win two individual tournaments – at the PNW Intercollegiates and Corvallis Indoor; we had two Big Sky Players of the Week – Matt Pronesti and Stuart Tierney; we had two all-conference players – Tierney and Ethan Lopez; and we had two more conference wins than the year before."
 
The Vikings' historic run started during the fall tournament schedule, when Pronesti and fellow junior Wil Cochrane became the first team to win a main draw doubles title since 2010 as they won the second flight of the PNW Intercollegiates doubles draw. Pronesti then followed the win up by claiming the singles title at the Corvallis Indoor Tennis Championships, becoming the first Viking to win a main draw singles title since 2011. Pronesti's historic accomplishments didn't end there, though, as his win in Corvallis earned him Big Sky Player of the Week honors, making him the first Viking to earn a weekly honor from the conference since 2010.
 
Senior Stuart Tierney and junior Ian Risenhoover also claimed the doubles title at the Corvallis Indoor Tennis Championships, giving the Vikings their first title sweep at a tournament in program history and launching the Vikings into their 2015 dual season.
 
The dual season started a little rocky for the Vikings, though, as while the Vikings could take pride in close losses to conference powers Idaho and Montana State, the losses still left the Vikings 0-2 in Big Sky play going into another home match against defending Big Sky tournament-champion Montana on Feb. 21. A loss there would have dropped the Vikings to 0-3 going into a tough six-week road trip, leaving the Vikings in a poor position going forward. The Vikings came up big against the Grizzlies, though, coming back to win the doubles point, and then winning four of the six singles matches to beat the Grizzlies, 5-2.
 
The win marked the Vikings' first-ever win over the perennial conference power Grizzlies, and the Vikings followed it with a 5-2 road win over North Dakota, rising them to 2-2 in Big Sky play.
 
At that point, the Vikings looked as if they could challenge for their first-ever berth into the Big Sky tournament, but a seven-match losing streak in the middle of the season made that preseason goal unlikely.
 
A couple of close losses really hurt the Vikings during their mid-season drought, as they lost 4-3 to a pair of Big Sky opponents on the road in Northern Colorado and Idaho State. The Vikings had also lost 4-3 at home to Montana State earlier in the season, leaving them 0-3 in 4-3 matches in Big Sky play. Wins in all those matches would put the Vikings in contention for a spot in the Big Sky tournament, as they would have stood 5-3 in Big Sky play going into the final two weeks of the regular season as opposed to their actual record of 2-6.
 
All that bad 4-3 mojo ended in (what else?) historic fashion, though, as the Vikings finally pulled out a 4-3 match, beating Sacramento State for the first time in program history on April 11. Risenhoover clinched the team's historic win over the 11-time Big Sky champions, as he pulled out a three-set win in a tiebreaker, beating Sacramento State's Tom Miller 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4).
 
The Vikings followed up the historic win over the Hornets with a 6-1 win over Southern Utah, too, setting more program records in the process. The win over Southern Utah gave the Vikings four Big Sky wins for the season, tying a single-season program record. Sophomore Ethan Lopez also won his record-breaking seventh Big Sky match of the season in the match, as well as his eighth Big Sky doubles win with partner Brent Wheeler, which also set a program record for conference wins by a doubles team.
 
A 6-1 loss to Northern Arizona then ended the Vikings' season two days after the team's win over Southern Utah, but the Vikings had accomplished plenty by then.
 
One final historic accomplishment came in the postseason, as Lopez and Tierney each earned All-Big Sky honorable-mention honors, making them the first pair of teammates to earn all-conference honors in the same season since 2010.
 
The all-conference honor put a positive cap on Tierney's collegiate career, as he and fellow senior Nate Chart graduated from the Viking program after the season.
 
The Vikings should still have plenty of firepower coming back to make another historic run next season, though, as Cochrane, Pronesti, Risenhoover and Wheeler will all be back as seniors for the Vikings in 2015-16, while Lopez could also take the top spot in the Vikings' singles lineup as a junior.
 
"I look forward to returning a veteran team next year, and I'm excited about the additions to our roster that will be coming," Krauel said.
 
And with all those players to utilize, Krauel will certainly hope to see his program improve even more next season, when the Vikings could make a run at their first-ever berth into the Big Sky tournament.
 
SECOND IS THE BEST:
Line two was the magic spot for the Vikings during the season in singles, as the Vikings went 13-6 at the position, as opposed to 33-62 combined everywhere else. Senior Stuart Tierney and sophomore Ethan Lopez combined to give the Vikings a strong record at line two, as Tierney went 5-1 at the position, while Lopez went 8-3. Additionally, Lopez's eight wins at line two rank tied for the second-best single-season total at the position in program history, while Tierney's five wins rank tied for sixth. Lopez also set the single-season win percentage record at line two, as his 8-3 record gave him a .727 win percentage (Tierney's 5-1 record at line two gave him a win percentage of .833, but Tierney was short of the 10-match minimum for record keeping purposes).
 
CLOSE LOSSES:
2015 could have been an even more historic year if not for a series of close losses during the season. The Vikings went 1-4 in 4-3 matches in 2015, with three of those four 4-3 losses coming in Big Sky play. If all those 4-3 matches had gone the Vikings' way, then they would have been 7-4 in Big Sky play, which would have been by far the best season in program history.
 
QUALITY WINS FOR TIERNEY:
Senior Stuart Tierney pulled off a number of quality wins for the Vikings during the season, as he beat four former All-Big Sky first- or second-team selections. Tierney recorded his fourth win over a former All-Big Sky player with his 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over Sacramento State's Roy Brandys that helped the Vikings record their first-ever win over Sacramento State. Besides Brandys, Tierney also beat three-time All-Big Sky first-team selection Niklas Brandes of Montana State, as well as All-Big Sky second-team selections Tomasz Soltyka of Montana, and Krzysztof Stempien of Idaho State.
 
RECORD SETTERS:
Sophomore Ethan Lopez and senior Stuart Tierney put together two of the best seasons in program history. Lopez's seven Big Sky wins broke the single-season program record, while his 11 wins overall during the dual season rank tied for the second-best single-season total. Tierney doesn't rank far behind Lopez, either, as Tierney's 10 wins overall this season rank as the fourth-best single-season win total, while his six Big Sky wins tied the previous single-season record that Chris Rice set in 2010. Additionally, Tierney's overall win percentage of .588 (10-7) during the season ranks as the third-best single-season win percentage, while Lopez's win percentage of .579 (11-8) ranks fourth. Lopez and junior Brent Wheeler, meanwhile, also broke the single-season school record for Big Sky doubles wins by a team with eight during the season. Lopez and Wheeler also each finished one win short of the individual record for Big Sky doubles wins in a season record, which Abhinav Mishra set at nine in 2013. Junior Ian Risenhoover also finished the season with 27 doubles wins in his Portland State career, ranking him tied for third all-time and five wins behind all-time leader Alex VanDerschelden, who had 32 career wins from 2008-11.