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VANCOUVER, Wash.­­ — The Portland State men's tennis team hardly needed a redemption tour after two straight losses against quality opponents, but the Vikings got one anyway Saturday, beating up on Northern Colorado for a 5-2 win that put the Vikings back on track heading into a month-long road trip.
 
The Vikings (6-4, 3-1 Big Sky) had lost their last two matches coming into Saturday, but the losses came against Army, which won the Patriot League tournament title last season, and Northern Arizona, which won the Big Sky regular-season title while going 10-1 in Big Sky play last season.
 
Saturday's match against the Bears (5-6, 1-3 Big Sky) righted the ship for the Vikings, with every player winning in either singles or doubles. Now at 3-1 in Big Sky play, the Vikings tied their best-ever start to the conference schedule, matching the team's starts in 2010 and 2016.
 
"It's a great start for the men's tennis program to go 3-1 in these first four matches," head coach Toby Krauel said after the match. "Even the loss we had, we played extremely well.
 
"This was a complete match today. We played really good doubles. The guys played excellent overall. I'm super proud of these guys. How hard they've worked, how hard they've competed, and how they've just really dug in. We've had some tough opponents recently with Army and Northern Arizona and so to come back and get a win here as we head out on the road is really important for us and for our season goals."
 
The dominance started in doubles, where the Vikings won the matches at lines one and two to clinch the doubles point. Avery West and Tommy Edwards snapped a two-match losing streak with a 6-2 win over the Bears' Connor Finerty and Cassell King at line one. Nathan Boniel and Gabe Souza, meanwhile, extended their win streak together to three matches, as they beat the Bears' Kyle Pease and Tommy Smalley 6-3 at line two.
 
The doubles win for West and Edwards, or Westwards, got the Vikings' No. 1 team back on the right foot, after they had lost two matches in a row following a six-match win streak.
 
Edwards also got back on track in singles, as he dropped only one game while beating the Bears' Michael Kritzinger 6-1, 6-0 at line three. The win snapped a four-match losing streak for Edwards, and marked his first conference win of the year in singles.
 
Sam Roberts snapped a three-match losing streak with a win at line five, beating Smalley in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4.
 
Freshman Otto Holtari did not need to snap a losing streak Saturday, and instead extended his winning streak to six matches with a straight-sets win over the Bears' Nick Wade. Holtari beat Wade 6-3, 6-3 in his debut at line four, after winning his previous five matches at line five.
 
Boniel added the Vikings' fifth point in the dual with a win at line one in what was probably the oddest match of the day against Finnerty. Boniel played a dominant first set, winning 6-2, but the players made a complete 180-degree turn in the second set as Finnerty beat Boniel 6-1 to send the match to a third set.
 
Finnerty broke Boniel in the opening game of the third set, but Boniel got the break back right away and held the upper hand the rest of the way before serving the match out for a 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 win.  
 
The Vikings will now hit the road beginning with a two-match swing up to Seattle next weekend. The Vikings play a rematch against Seattle University Friday, March 2, and then play the University of Washington Saturday, March 3. The Vikings won't play at home again until March 23, when they host Weber State at Club Green Meadows.

Portland State 5, Northern Colorado 2
Feb 24, 2018 at Vancouver, Wash. (Club Green Meadows) 

Singles competition

1. BONIEL, Nathan (PSU) def. Finerty, Connor (NC) 6-2, 1-6, 6-3

2. Pease, Kyle (NC) def. WEST, Avery (PSU) 3-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-7)

3. EDWARDS, Tommy (PSU) def. Kritzinger, Michael (NC) 6-1, 6-0

4. HOLTARI, Otto (PSU) def. Wade, Nick (NC) 6-3, 6-3

5. ROBERTS, Sam (PSU) def. Smalley, Tommy (NC) 6-1, 6-4

6. Exsted, Alex (NC) def. SOUZA, Gabe (PSU) 7-6 (8-6), 6-2

 

Doubles competition

1. WEST, Avery/EDWARDS, Tommy (PSU) def. Finerty, Connor/King, Cassell (NC) 6-2

2. BONIEL, Nathan/SOUZA, Gabe (PSU) def. Pease, Kyle/Smalley, Tommy (NC) 6-3

3. Kritzinger, Michael/Wade, Nick (NC) def. HOLTARI, Otto/ROBERTS, Sam (PSU) 7-6 (9-7)

 

Match Notes

Northern Colorado 5-6, 1-3 BSC

Portland State 6-4, 3-1 BSC

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