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CAMAS, Wash. — Playing without a full roster for the second straight match, the Portland State women's tennis team equated themselves well against South Dakota Sunday, but couldn't pull out the miracle win, falling 5-2 at Evergreen Tennis Center.
 
"In the early season this is the kind of matches we want to get in under our belts," head coach Jay Sterling said. "Everybody kind of playing up a few lines from where they normally would. It was really inspiring to see them compete and give themselves opportunities to take this dual. Congrats to South Dakota. They kind of just outlasted us but I'm really proud of our team for putting forth the effort."
 
The Vikings (0-2) had five players in uniform Sunday, one more than they had Saturday, but still not enough to fill all six singles lines. The Vikings forfeited the matches at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles as a result, putting them down 1-0 from the start and needing to sweep the remaining two doubles matches in order to avoid a 2-0 deficit.
 
The Vikings did just that, however, sweeping the matches at lines one and two in doubles to take the doubles point and level the match at 1-1.
 
Brianna Thompson and Alli Valk posted a dominant, 6-0 win over South Dakota's Aria Chemodanova and Anastasiia Bondarenko at line one in doubles.
 
Eszter Zador and Ashley Knecht had a tougher go of it at line two, and were even down a break with their opponents serving for the match at 5-3. Zador and Knecht broke just when they needed to in order to get back on serve, however, and even went up a break at 6-5. South Dakota's Jana Lazarevic and Nanette Nylund broke back to force a tiebreaker, but Zador and Knecht ran out to an early 4-0 lead and held on from there for a 7-6 (4) win.
 
Freshman Gerda Upeniece then put the Vikings out on a good foot in singles, as she only dropped one game while beating South Dakota's Luana Stanciu 6-1, 6-0 at line four in less than an hour.
 
The match turned towards the Yotes (2-0) after that, however. Lazarevic leveled things for the Yotes with a 6-3, 6-4 win at line one, and Habiba Aly followed with a 6-2, 7-5 win at line three to put South Dakota up 3-2 in the dual.
 
Valk played the closest match of the dual against South Dakota's Barbora Kollarova at line two. Valk broke Kollarova with Kollarova leading 4-2 in the first set, and the pair held serve from there on into a first-set tiebreaker. Valk fought off two set points to get back level at 6-6 in the first-set tiebreaker, but Kollarova won the next two points to take the first set, 7-6 (6).
 
Both players held serve over the first several games in the second set, until Kollarova broke Valk at 4-3. Valk broke back right away to get to 4-all, but Kollarova followed suit and then served out the match for a 7-6 (6), 6-4 win that clinched the dual for the Coyotes.
 
Knecht led early in both sets against Bondarenko at line five, but fell 6-3, 7-5.
 
"We made great adjustments," Sterling said. "Everybody played better in the second set than they did in the first. That's something that I'm really proud of with the team is they took the lessons from the first set, made the adjustments and then did a good job executing those adjustments."
 
The Vikings will now take a week off before facing cross-town rival University of Portland on the road, Feb. 2, at 10 a.m.

South Dakota 5, Portland State 2
Jan 21, 2018 at Camas, Wash. (Evergreen Tennis Center) 

Singles competition

1. LAZAREVIC, Jana (USD) def. THOMPSON, Brianna (PSU) 6-3, 6-4

2. KOLLAROVA, Barbora (USD) def. VALK, Alli (PSU) 7-6 (8-6), 6-4

3. ALY, Habiba (USD) def. ZADOR, Eszter (PSU) 6-2, 7-5

4. UPENIECE, Gerda (PSU) def. STANCIU, Luana (USD) 6-1, 6-0

5. BONDARENKO, A. (USD) def. KNECHT, Ashley (PSU) 6-3, 7-5

6. CHEMODANOVA, Aria (USD) def. No player (PSU), by default

 

Doubles competition

1. THOMPSON, Brianna/VALK, Alli (PSU) def. CHEMODANOVA, Aria/BONDARENKO, A. (USD) 6-0

2. ZADOR, Eszter/KNECHT, Ashley (PSU) def. LAZAREVIC, Jana/NYLUND, Nanette (USD) 7-6 (7-4)

3. STANCIU, Luana/KOLLAROVA, Barbora (USD) def. No player/No player (PSU), by default

 

Match Notes

South Dakota 2-0

Portland State 0-2

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