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MOSCOW, Idaho — Returning to action after two straight weekends off, the Portland State women's tennis team faced a difficult task against defending Big Sky tournament champion Idaho Sunday, but showed fight despite losing to the Vandals, 6-1.
 
The Vikings (5-8, 4-5 Big Sky) played three close matches at lines two through four in singles, all of which could have gone the Vikings' way and turned the 6-1 final score into a closer, 4-3 result.

"It was closer than the score indicated," PSU head coach Jay Sterling said after the match. "As a team, we had over 23 games that we were ahead by either 40-0 or 40-15 scores and lost those games. And that's just the ones that I saw and noted. That's a huge difference in the outcome. We have to give Idaho credit for taking those games, but today, we just beat ourselves too many times with too many missed serves, double faults and missed returns."
 
Sophomore Siena Peri pulled out a close match against Idaho's Rita Bermudez at line two for the Vikings' lone point in the dual. Peri won a pair of tight sets to top Bermudez, 6-4, 6-3, and bring herself back to .500 at 6-6 in singles during the spring dual season.
 
Juniors Tracy Dong and Sabina-Elena Preda also each took their opponents to match tiebreakers at lines three and four, respectively.
 
Dong bounced back after a 6-0 loss in the first set against Idaho's Celine Koets at line three to take Koets to a second-set tiebreaker. Additionally, Dong pulled out the tiebreaker, 7-4, to level the match and extend it into a 10-point tiebreaker. Koets recovered to dominate the ensuing match tiebreaker, however, beating Dong 10-1 to take the match, 6-0, 6-7 (4), 10-1.
 
Preda, meanwhile, ran out to an early set lead after beating Idaho's Belen Barcenilla 6-3 in the first. Barcenilla bounced back with a 6-2 win over Preda in the second set, however, and then controlled the ensuing match tiebreaker to win 3-6, 6-2, 10-2.
 
The Vikings would have needed Dong and Preda to pull out their matches to truly challenge the Vandals Sunday, and would have needed to find another point somewhere else to get the win.
 
Typically, that other point has come from doubles, where the Vikings have been dominant this season. Going into the match, the Vikings had won the doubles point in eight of their last nine matches, and had not dropped a doubles match in seven of those matches. Additionally, the Vikings had won over 70 percent of their doubles matches as a team in Big Sky play, and had gone 14-2 in Big Sky doubles matches since the opening weekend of the season.
 
Idaho swept the Vikings in doubles Sunday, however, becoming the first team to take all three doubles matches from the Vikings since Sacramento State and the Academy of Art did it on the opening weekend of the season. The Vikings had also won five straight matches at lines one and two going into their match against the Vandals, but both streaks ended Sunday.
 
The loss the Vandals now puts the Vikings close to a must-win situation at Eastern Washington next Sunday. Currently, there are still ways the Vikings could lose the Eagles and still make the Big Sky tournament with a win over Montana on April 16, but those possibilities could go away by the time the Vikings play the Eagles.
 
Right now, four teams have at least five wins in conference play, and all four of those teams hold the tiebreaker over the Vikings after beating them head-to-head. Of those four teams, the Vikings could only catch Sacramento State, but that would require the Vikings to win both of their remaining matches while the Hornets lose all five of their remaining conference matches. More likely, the Vikings will be competing against Eastern Washington, Montana State and Montana for the final two spots in the Big Sky tournament.
 
The Vikings lost to Montana State earlier in the season, which means the Bobcats could force the Vikings to win both of their remaining matches – against Eastern Washington and Montana – in order to pass them, if the Bobcats (4-4 in Big Sky play currently) are able to pick up one more conference win. The Bobcats could get their fifth Big Sky win of the season at home against Northern Colorado next Saturday, which would then make the Vikings' match against the Eagles a must-win match for the Vikings.
 
A loss to the Eagles in that situation, would eliminate the Vikings from the Big Sky tournament, as they would not be able to pass any of the six teams above them in the Big Sky standings.

"We know what we have to do in the games ahead, so we will just focus on the next weekend and prepare to battle like we have all season," Sterling said. "If we play at the level we did today, we will beat a lot of teams. We just have to keep our focus and close things out when we're ahead."
 
The Vikings will know to give it their best shot next Sunday against the Eagles, then, as the two teams square off at 10 a.m. (PT) in Cheney, Wash.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings fall to 1-10 all-time against Idaho with their loss Sunday…Idaho has also now won the first two Big Sky matches in the series between the two teams…Peri's win also extends her career record for wins at No. 2 singles to 14.

Idaho 6, Portland State 1
Apr 03, 2016 at Moscow, Idaho 

Singles competition

1. Petrei, Marianna (UI) def. VORSTER, Dane (PSU) 6-1, 6-0

2. PERI, Siena (PSU) def. BERMUDEZ, Rita (UI) 6-4, 6-3

3. KOETS, Celine (UI) def. DONG, Tracy (PSU) 6-0, 6-7 (4-7), 10-1

4. BARCENILLA, Belen (UI) def. PREDA, Sabina-Elena (PSU) 3-6, 6-2, 10-2

5. TAVARES, Maria (UI) def. FREY, Kelsey (PSU) 6-2, 6-0

6. BADILLOS, Lucia (UI) def. REES, Taylor (PSU) 6-1, 6-1

Doubles competition

1. BARCENILLA, Belen/BATIRI, Ana (UI) def. PERI, Siena/DONG, Tracy (PSU) 6-3

2. BERMUDEZ, Rita/TAVARES, Maria (UI) def. VORSTER, Dane/REES, Taylor (PSU) 6-4

3. Petrei, Marianna/BADILLOS, Lucia (UI) def. FREY, Kelsey/PREDA, Sabina-Elena (PSU) 7-5

Match Notes

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