RESULTS (PDF)

STOCKTON, Calif. — Neil Armstrong must be jealous of Portland State men's tennis player Nathan Boniel.
 
After all, Armstrong was only the first person to do one thing – walk on the moon (pfft!). Boniel, meanwhile, has been the first Viking to be named Big Sky MVP, the Vikings' first two-time All-Big Sky first-team selection, and now the first Viking to make the third round of the singles main draw at the ITA Northwest Regional.
 
Boniel, who is also the first Viking to earn a seed at the ITA Northwest Regional, advanced to the third round of the tournament Thursday with straight-set wins over Stanford's Nikita Demir and Portland's Alex Wallace.
 
Boniel only dropped three games to Demir while beating the Stanford sophomore 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of the tournament. Boniel has now beaten two different players from Pac-12 schools this fall, after he opened his run to the Dar Walters Fall Classic singles title two weeks ago with a 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-5) win over Oregon's Armando Soemarno.
 
Boniel then only dropped four game while beating UP's Wallace 6-2, 6-2 in the second round Thursday.
 
Boniel will face Jesus Barajas of Santa Clara in the third round Friday, after Barajas upset ninth-seeded Enzo Sommer of Washington in their second-round match. Boniel and Barajas will face off at 2 p.m. Friday, with the winner advancing the round of 16.
 
Sophomore Tommy Edwards joined Boniel in the second round Thursday, but couldn't quite match him by making the third round. Edwards advanced to the second round after pulling out a pair of close tiebreakers against Marco Barretto of San Francisco to win, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4). Edwards came up against a seeded player in the second round, however, and lost 6-3, 6-3 to Santa Clara's Connor Garnett.
 
Gabe Souza and Majeed Bukhari both nearly added a third win for the Vikings in the first round, but both players lost their matches in three sets. Souza won the first set of his match against Fresno State's Patrick Pech, 6-4, but then lost the next two sets 6-3, 6-3 to fall out of the draw. Bukhari, meanwhile, came back after a losing the first set of his match against Fresno State's Youssef Hasan, 6-1, to win the second set, 7-5. Hasan rebounded to pull out a close third set against Bukhari, 6-4, however, giving him the 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 win.
 
The Vikings open play in doubles tomorrow with three matches starting as early as 8 a.m. Edwards and Avery West will open doubles play for the Vikings against Pech and Henrique Osorio of Fresno State. Boniel and Sam Roberts will then face off against Matis Bot and Nash Vollenweider of Saint Mary's (Calif.) at 9:45 a.m., while Souza and Otto Holtari start their first-round match against Jackson Hawk and Daniel Krutik of Saint Mary's at 10 a.m.
 
A number of Vikings will also begin play in the consolation singles draw tomorrow, with those matches starting at 12 p.m.