Portland State men's tennis continued its impressive start to the Big Sky season Saturday, defeating Montana State 6-1 at the Vancouver Tennis Center.

The Vikings had two players remain perfect in singles play and continued to dominate in doubles en route to the victory. Portland State is now 6-3 on the season and 2-1 in Big Sky play with two more home conference matches remaining on the schedule.

PSU set the tone early in doubles as the No. 1 team of Avery West and Tommy Edwards started quickly broke Montana State's serve twice, jumping out to a 3-0 lead. The Bobcats would win a couple games down the stretch but it was an easy 6-2 win for West/Edwards.

The other two matches were tight, but it was on court two that the Vikings clinched the point. Lucas Castelo Branco and Matteo Fortini battled back from down 3-4, winning the final three games and clinching it on an incredible rally that stretched all four players to every corner of the court.

Portland State lost the doubles point in its last match against Sacramento State, so getting off to a good start was big today.

"We played really solid doubles today and I think that was the difference between today and against Sacramento State," Head Coach Toby Krauel said.

Castelo Branco, the defending Big Sky Player of the Week, then won the first singles point in emphatic fashion. The Brazilian maintained his impressive start to the conference season, defeating Drew Brown 6-2, 6-2 to start his Big Sky season 3-0.

While Castelo Branco has been impressive at No. 2, Nikola Dimitrijevic has been just as dominant for the Vikings. He kept it up Saturday, even after moving up a spot in the lineup and playing No. 3. After trailing 0-3 early, the singles specialist won 6-3, 6-2 to improve to 6-2 on the year and 3-0 in Big Sky play.

"Lucas continued to stay hot and play amazing tennis," Krauel said. "It was kind of an awkward, easy win for him and he's on a roll. Niko again won in straight sets and that's the third straight match he's won pretty comfortably."

Dimitrijevic's match finished just after Matteo Fortini dropped a two-setter on court one, but the win at No. 3 put the Vikings just one point away from the clinch.

The winning point came from a resilient Tommy Edwards, who battled through illness to win an impressive match at No. 4. The Hillsboro native fell behind 2-5 early in the first set, but found his rhythm. He won four consecutive games to take a 6-5 lead, but would eventually drop the first set in a tiebreaker.

Still, the comeback in the first set gave him momentum to cruise through the next two. He controlled the match in the final two sets, winning them 6-2, 6-2 to clinch the match at 4-1 for the Vikings.

Sam Roberts shook off a three-match losing streak with a straight sets win at No. 5. He battled it out, winning 6-4, 7-5 in a tight and competitive match.

"I'm super happy for Sam," Krauel said. "He played great today and had a lot of tough losses in close matches this season but he changed some things up in his game. He was able to get it done in two sets against a tough player."

The final match of the day was at No. 6, where Otto Holtari showed impressive fight in a 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (7) comeback win.

The Vikings are back at home next weekend with a couple of matches against Montana and Eastern Washington. After those, PSU will play the final five conference matches on the road.

"A 6-1 win over Montana State is a good, quality win for us, and really a must win for us this season at home," Krauel said. "We will have two matches next weekend at home and hopefully we will keep it rolling."

MATCH NOTES: The Vikings improve to 3-11 all-time against Montana State … The Vikings won their sixth match of the season, which is already the 6th highest win total in a single season … Lucas Castelo Branco won his fifth match of the season at No. 2 singles, tying him for 7th in single-season program history. He is also tied for 6th in career wins at No. 2 … Nikola Dimitrijevic improved to 6-2 on the season and won his first career match at No. 3 … Tommy Edwards improves to 7-2 on the year, the best record of any Viking, and is now 1-1 while playing at No. 4 … Otto Holtari won his fourth match of the season at No. 6 and now has an overall record of 5-1 … Sam Roberts broke a three-match losing streak with a straight sets win … The Vikings are now 4-1 at home this season … Sahal Bukary also won a bonus match 6-2, 6-2.