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VANCOUVER, Wash. — The Portland State men's tennis team dropped a heartbreaker on the eve of Big Sky play Friday, losing 4-3 to Seattle at Club Green Meadows.
 
The loss drops the Vikings to 1-2 on the season, a day before the Vikings are set to open Big Sky play against Sacramento State.
 
The Vikings went up 3-1 in the dual against the Redhawks (2-4), but three-set wins at lines two and five knotted it back up at 3-all before Alex Chan closed it out for Seattle with a 6-3, 6-4 win at line six.
 
Seattle pulled it out after falling behind 1-0 as the Vikings swept all three doubles matches to take the doubles point.
 
Doubles served as a sign of the close matches to come in singles, as all three matches remained close.
 
Sophomore Russell Risenhoover and redshirt freshman Yousef Abdo traded three straight breaks with Chan and Jeremiah Kalmus of Seattle at line two, and then gave up another break to get back on serve at 4-3. Risenhoover and Abdo broke a third time with their opponents serving to stay in the match at 5-4, however, giving them their first win together as a doubles team.
 
Senior Ethan Lopez and freshman Sam Larson, meanwhile, broke with their opponents serving for the match at 5-4 at line three, and won three straight games to close out the win, 7-5.
 
Lopez and Larson's win clinched the doubles point for the Vikings, but the teams played out the match at line one, which turned into the closest match of them all. Junior Nathan Boniel and freshman Tommy Edwards twice broke to go up in the match, only to give up the break immediately to get back on serve. The last break came with Boniel and Edwards serving for the match at 6-5, and gave Seattle's Trenton Nield and Matt Alderson the momentum going into the tiebreaker.
 
Boniel and Edwards ran out to a 5-3 lead in the tiebreaker, but Nield and Alderson responded with three straight points to get a match point on their racket at 6-5. Boniel and Edwards saved the match point to make it 6-6, and then Edwards fired a pretty cross-court return that gave him and Boniel their own match point at 7-6, an on their serve.
 
Nield and Alderson saved that match point, but Boniel and Edwards won the next point to give them another match point at 8-7 that they converted for a 7-6 (7) win.
 
Edwards came out firing off of that match in singles, getting two early breaks to go up 4-1 in the first set against Alderson at line three. Edwards closed out the first set, 6-2, and got an early break to start out the second set. Alderson got the break back quickly, but Edwards broke again at 2-all, and then broke in Alderson's final service game to secure a 6-2, 6-3 win.
 
Edwards' win made it 2-1 Vikings in the dual at that point in the match, with Boniel a set up over at line one. Boniel ran out to a 4-1 lead in the first set against Nield, only to give a break back and get back on serve at 4-3. Boniel won five straight games from there to go 3-0 and a set up, but then ran into trouble as Nield started to come back.
 
Nield got one of two breaks back, and then broke Boniel again with Boniel serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set. Boniel broke Nield right back to give himself another chance to serve out the match, but Nield broke again to send the second set to a tiebreaker. Boniel never trailed in the tiebreaker, however, and wrapped up a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win at line one.
 
"Tommy and Nathan continue to lead this team," Portland State head coach Toby Krauel said after the match. "They played phenomenal tennis today in winning both their singles and doubles matches."
 
Boniel's win left the Vikings just one win away from the dual, but a three-set comeback at line five brought the Redhawks back within one at 3-2 with matches still active at lines two and six.
 
Lopez fought back from a 6-3 loss in the first set at line two to beat Seattle's John Stormans 6-0 in the second set. Stormans shook off his problems in the second set to run out to a 2-0 lead on Lopez at the start of the third set, but Lopez won five of the next six service games to give himself a 5-3 lead.
 
Lopez kept the pressure on Stormans with Stormans serving to stay in the match at 5-3, and gave himself three match points at 15-40 on Stormans' serve. Stormans saved all three match points, however, and then broke Lopez with Lopez serving for the match at 5-4.
 
The players each held from there to force a third-set tiebreaker, but Stormans dominated the breaker from the start to win 6-3, 0-6, 7-6 (2) and knot the dual at 3-3.
 
"Ethan was battling through some injuries in the third set, but he fought bravely for us," Krauel said afterwards.
 
Seattle's win at line two left it up to line six, where Chan had run off four straight wins to close out the first set on Larson, 6-3. Chan led 4-2 in the second set, too, at the time Stormans won at line two, giving the Redhawks a clear path to the dual win.
 
Larson pulled through with a heady hold to get it within 4-3, and then broke Chan to get back on serve in the second set at 4-all. Chan ran out to a 15-40 lead in the ensuing service game for Larson, however, and eventually broke Larson, even as Larson fought back to bring the game level at deuce.
 
Larson was still resilient and got two break points on Chan's ensuing service game, but Chan saved both to close a 6-3, 6-4 win at line six and clinch the dual for the Redhawks.
 
The Vikings will now hope to bounce back tomorrow, as they host the perennially strong Sacramento State Hornets at 12 p.m. at Club Green Meadows in Vancouver, Wash.
 
The Vikings beat the Hornets for the first time ever the last time they came to Club Green Meadows, so the Vikings will hope they can repeat that performance and open Big Sky play 1-0.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings fall to 7-4 all-time against Seattle with Friday's loss…Friday's loss to Seattle snapped a two-match winning streak for the Vikings against the Redhawks, after the Vikings beat the Redhawks twice during the 2016 season…The Vikings will face the Redhawks again for a match in Seattle at 6 p.m. on Feb. 11.
 
Seattle 4, Portland State 3
Jan 27, 2017 at Vancouver, Wash. (Club Green Meadows) 

Singles competition

1. BONIEL, Nathan (PSU) def. NIELD, Trenton (SU) 6-3, 7-6 (7-3)

2. STORMANS, John (SU) def. LOPEZ, Ethan (PSU) 6-3, 0-6, 7-6 (7-2)

3. EDWARDS, Tommy (PSU) def. ALDERSON, Matt (SU) 6-2, 6-3

4. KALMUS, Jeremiah (SU) def. RISENHOOVER, Russell (PSU) 6-4, 6-0

5. SCHOETTLER, Michael (SU) def. ABDO, Yousef (PSU) 4-6, 6-3, 6-1

6. CHAN, Alex (SU) def. LARSON, Sam (PSU) 6-3, 6-4

 

Doubles competition

1. BONIEL, Nathan/EDWARDS, Tommy (PSU) def. NIELD, Trenton/ALDERSON, Matt (SU) 7-6 (9-7)

2. RISENHOOVER, Russell/ABDO, Yousef (PSU) def. KALMUS, Jeremiah/CHAN, Alex (SU) 6-4

3. LOPEZ, Ethan/LARSON, Sam (PSU) def. STORMANS, John/SCHOETTLER, Michael (SU) 7-5

 

Match Notes

Seattle 2-4

Portland State 1-2

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