Women's Tennis 10/14/2018 8:52:00 PM Jackson Wagner

Portland-Seattle Battle Prepares Vikings Tennis for ITA Regionals

The challenge of facing off against Washington and Portland was always going to be great, which is a major reason that head coach Jay Sterling wanted to host the 1st annual Portland-Seattle Battle.

The Vikings took some losses this weekend, but they also had a few signature wins and learned exactly what it takes to become a top team by staring them straight in the face. Washington is a top 50 team in the country and finished last season as the third best team in the Northwest Region of the ITA.

This weekend showed Portland State the little things that separate great teams from good teams.

"It's good for the confidence because they can take a top ranked team and grind with them point-to-point," head coach Jay Sterling said. "It kind of points out that the differences between a top-ranked team and a mid-major is the little details and sometimes it is nice to see that in person."

The Vikings may have played against two great teams this weekend, but for Sterling, he wants his team to start to gain confidence in themselves as well.

"I'm hoping that our team can look in the mirror and see that we're a good team as well," Sterling said. "The gap, although it will take a lot of hard work, commitment and dedication to cross, isn't that big. I think our players need to give themselves more credit than they do."

In the first round of matches on Friday, freshman Jacinta Milenkoski picked up the lone win for the Vikings. She defeated Radina Dimitrova of Portland 6-4, 6-3 in a hard fought and heated match.

Lotti Meszaros, playing in the No. 1 spot on the weekend for the Vikings, also earned a victory of Dimitrova, who had 12 wins last year primarily playing at No. 2 for the Pilots. Meszaros won in straight sets 6-2, 7-6 (5).

She overcame a 5-2 deficit in the final set and closed out strong in the tiebreaker as well.

"Lotti and Jacinta had some great wins against a really good player," Sterling said. "We've been looking from the whole team to get the rust off and actually have the bravery to go do it. Winning is a habit and it takes practice and tennis is a unique sport where you have the dirty job of finishing off your opponent and it takes courage to do that."

In the doubles competition, Nina Nikitovic got a sweet victory against her former team. Playing with Meszaros, Portland State defeated Okazaki/Ramalle of Portland 7-5 in the first round of doubles.

On Sunday, Alli Valk and Eszter Zador outlasted LeBlanc/Soares of Portland for a 6-4 win.

Overall, the Portland-Seattle Battle was a success. Sterling said that it was impressive to see a team like Washington that is immensely talented and also very classy and graceful in victory.

Now, Portland State heads to the final tournament of the fall schedule. The ITA Northwest Regional will bring together many talented teams including a number of Pac-12 schools. But Sterling knows that his team got a good primer of what to expect this weekend.

"We just saw a lot of good tennis," Sterling said. "Both Portland and Washington are excellent teams so we aren't going to see anybody hit the ball harder or more consistent than what we saw all weekend. It prepares us visually and mentally for that. It showed us our weaknesses as well and we have a short week but we have a lot of confidence for this weekend."

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Players Mentioned

Alli Valk: Junior; 1L

Eszter Zador: Junior; 1L

Jacinta Milenkoski: Freshman; HS

Nina Nikitovic: Sophomore; TR

Lotti Meszaros: Sophomore; TR

Players Mentioned

Alli Valk
: Junior; 1L

Eszter Zador
: Junior; 1L

Jacinta Milenkoski
: Freshman; HS

Nina Nikitovic
: Sophomore; TR

Lotti Meszaros
: Sophomore; TR