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VANCOUVER, Wash. — Injuries never come at convenient times, but they hit the Portland State women's tennis team at an especially bad time, forcing a short-handed Vikings squad to take on the two-time defending Big Sky tournament-champion Idaho Vandals Sunday at Club Green Meadows. The defending-champion Vandals showed no mercy against the ailing Vikings, either, beating them 4-0 in both teams' Big Sky opener.
 
"It's just a rough day at the office," head coach Jay Sterling said after the match. "All the credit goes to Idaho. They played a great match. They stayed ahead of us in points from the get go. For the most part, they got on top of us early and really didn't give us a lot of chances to get into points. I'm proud of my girls for trying different things, trying to figure out a way to get into points and find some weaknesses, but Idaho was just too tough today."
 
The Vandals (2-1, 1-0 Big Sky) jumped on the Vikings (0-2, 0-1 Big Sky) early with a pair of 6-2 wins at lines two and three in doubles to clinch the doubles point and go up 1-0 within the dual early on.
 
The Vandals then completed straight-set wins at lines one, three and four to clinch the dual while the matches at lines two and five went unfinished.
 
Freshman Sally Partington put up a fight in the first set of her match against Idaho's Jessica Brzozowska, coming back from an early break and a 3-0 deficit to get back on serve at 3-2. Partington was broken again while serving at 2-3, but then broke right back once more. Brzozowska broke Partington a third time in the ensuing game, however, and then served out the set and cruised from there.
 
Junior Siena Peri played the best match of any of the Vikings, as she took Idaho's Lucia Badillos – an All-Big Sky honorable mention last season – to a tiebreaker in the first set. Peri broke Badillos at 5-all to give herself a chance to serve for the set at 6-5, but Badillos broke right back to take it to a tiebreaker. The match remained close within the tiebreaker, but Badillos pulled it out, 7-5. Peri and Badillos were tied, 1-1, in the second set when the match was called.
 
The loss drops the Vikings to 0-1 in Big Sky play to start its conference year, and the Vikings will need to get healthy in a hurry, as they have six Big Sky matches over the next five weeks.
 
"The obvious answer is we've just got to learn from it," Sterling said of what the team can learn from Sunday's loss. "You have two choices: you could have a pity party, 'woe is me', and let it affect you for the next five matches, or you can get over it and use it as motivation as practice this week. Everybody on the team has something that they can work and get better on from today."
 
The Vikings will next play North Dakota Saturday at 1 p.m. (CT) in Grand Forks, N.D.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings fall to 1-10 all-time against Idaho with Sunday's loss…Sophomore Ashley Knecht made her debut in the Vikings' doubles lineup in the match…Sophomore transfer Georgia Dobell also made her debut in the Vikings' singles and doubles lineups Sunday...Senior Sabina-Elena Preda and sophomore Brianna Thompson were both out of the Vikings' lineup due to injury.
 
Idaho 4, Portland State 0
Feb 05, 2017 at Vancouver, Wash. (Club Green Meadows) 

Singles competition

1. PETREI, Marianna (UI) def. DONG, Tracy (PSU) 6-1, 6-0

2. PERI, Siena (PSU) vs. BADILLOS, Lucia (UI) 6-7 (5-7), 1-1, unfinished

3. BRZOZOWSKA, Jessica (UI) def. PARTINGTON, Sally (PSU) 6-3, 6-0

4. BATIRI, Ana (UI) def. DOBELL, Georgia (PSU) 6-1, 6-1

5. REES, Taylor (PSU) vs. TAVARES, Maria (UI) 0-1, unfinished

6. KNECHT, Ashley (PSU) vs. WATABE, Shion (UI) unfinished

 

Doubles competition

1. DONG, Tracy/PERI, Siena (PSU) vs. PETREI, Marianna/BADILLOS, Lucia (UI) 2-5, unfinished

2. BATIRI, Ana/TAVARES, Maria (UI) def. PARTINGTON, Sally/DOBELL, Georgia (PSU) 6-2

3. BRZOZOWSKA, Jessica/WATABE, Shion (UI) def. REES, Taylor/KNECHT, Ashley (PSU) 6-2

 

Match Notes

Idaho 2-1, 1-0 BSC

Portland State 0-2, 0-1 BSC

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