RESULTS

MALIBU, Calif. — Mike Leach doesn't have to worry this time. This Big Sky-Pac-12 upset didn't involve him at all. Instead, it involved Portland State's Nathan Boniel, who, along with Idaho's Marianna Petrei, beat Nick Crystal of USC and Denise Starr of Cal in the first round of mixed doubles at the prestigious, invitation-only Oracle ITA Masters Thursday.
 
Boniel and Petrei – playing together as the 2016 Big Sky Men's and Women's MVPs, respectively – beat Crystal and Starr, 6-3, to advance to the second round of the draw.
 
The win marked a monumental upset based on ITA rankings alone, as while there are no mixed doubles rankings in collegiate tennis, both Crystal and Starr came into the match ranked highly in the ITA men's and women's national rankings.
 
Crystal came into the match ranked 10th nationally with partner Laurens Verboven on the men's side, while Starr came into the match ranked third nationally with partner Maegan Manasse. Additionally, Starr and Manasse made the NCAA doubles final during the 2016 spring season, when they were also named the Pac-12 Doubles Team of the Year.
 
What's more, Crystal came into the match with impressive singles credentials, as he stands as the highest-ranked singles player for USC at 27th nationally, and won an NCAA team title with the Trojans as a freshman in 2014.
 
Boniel and Petrei nearly pulled off another upset in the second round of the mixed doubles draw, as well, as they took Guilherme Hadlich and Luisa Stefani, both of Pepperdine, to a tiebreaker before falling 7-6 (4).
 
Like Crystal, Hadlich also came into the match ranked nationally in doubles on the men's side, as he currently stands 18th in the nation with regular partner Gabriel Sidney. Stefani, meanwhile, came into the match ranked even higher in women's doubles, as she and regular partner Jean Runglerkriangkrai currently rank sixth nationally.
 
Stefani also ranks second nationally in women's singles, while Hadlich stands 117th in men's singles.
 
Boniel also played in the men's singles draw Thursday, but lost in straight sets to UCLA's Gage Brymer. Brymer – the 38th-ranked singles player nationally – beat Boniel 6-2, 6-4 to knock Boniel out of the main singles draw.
 
Boniel will continue play in the men's consolation singles draw at 4 p.m. (PT) tomorrow. Boniel opens the consolation draw against Robert Livi of St. John's – a player who finished the 2016 season ranked 17th in the ITA Northeast Region.