The Portland State men's tennis team knew it needed a good start at home if they wanted to return to Phoenix and the Big Sky Championships. Mission accomplished. The Vikings knocked off Eastern Washington 5-2 on Saturday at the Vancouver Tennis Center to start the Big Sky season 4-1.

All five matches have come at home, setting up a difficult close to the year, but the Vikings picked up some quality wins at home and did what was expected of them. The only blemish was a 4-3 loss to Sacramento State, a match that easily could have tipped in favor of the Vikings.

After a couple of close matches that came down to the wire, PSU had some breathing room against the Eagles, winning the first four points to clinch the match early on. Eastern showed fight, taking two of the final three points, but there was never a doubt for Head Coach Toby Krauel and his team.

"This weekend, playing back-to-back matches, they were courageous," Krauel said. "We played much better doubles today and had some really good tennis played out here. We had a really good team, collective effort and it is exciting to be 4-1 at this point in the season."

The Vikings dropped doubles against Montana on Friday, which has happened just three times in 11 matches. They bounced back today by getting the point with big wins at No. 2 and 3. Lucas Castelo Branco/Matteo Fortini cruised 6-0 and Sam Roberts/Majeed Bukhari won 6-3 to claim the point.

The Vikings didn't let up in singles, pushing hard early and clinching the match very early on in the day. Tommy Edwards was the first to finish, winning 6-4, 6-3 at No. 4. Nikola Dimitrijevic, who normally plays No. 4, moved up to No. 3 and won 6-4, 6-1.

It continued a perfect 5-0 start to the Big Sky season for Dimitrijevic, whose intensity helped motivate the Vikings again on Saturday. The depth of the Vikings has allowed Krauel to mix up the lineup a bit, but his players continue to impress no matter what position they play.

There was a mixup at the top lines this weekend as well, as Lucas Castelo Branco went to No. 1 while Matteo Fortini slid down to No. 2. The move has paid off well for Fortini, who continued his stellar play with a 6-4, 6-3 win against EWU. He improved to 3-0 this year while playing at No. 2 while clinching the match victory for PSU.

Castelo Branco had a tight match at the top spot, but dropped his first Big Sky match of the season 6-2, 6-4 to give EWU its first point of the day. Otto Holtari, who didn't play Friday, came back into the lineup but fell at No. 6 6-3, 7-6 (3).

Sam Roberts won the last match of the night in a lengthy, hard-fought match. He won the first set 6-2, but Jeremy Mueller bounced back and won the second set in a tiebreak. They went immediately into another tiebreaker to decide the third set, which Roberts claimed 10-4.

The Vikings are now 4-1 in the Big Sky and have the most wins of any conference team. They will have a break from conference play next week with a home match against Lewis-Clark State before hitting the road for the final five Big Sky matches.

"Today was comfortable, but we are just really excited to go into this next stretch and start getting ready for some outdoor matches and road trips," Krauel said. "We did well in road matches last year so we're excited to keep climbing and winning."

MATCH NOTES: The Vikings improve to 5-14 all-time vs. Eastern Washington … Head Coach Toby Krauel won his 49th career match on Saturday and is now one win away from being the first men's coach to reach 50 career wins at PSU … The Vikings now have six players with at least a .500 record in conference matches … Nikola Dimitrijevic is 5-0 in conference play with three matches at No. 4 and two at No. 3 … Tommy Edwards won his second straight match at No. 4 singles and is now 3-2 in conference play … Sam Roberts has won three straight matches after starting his season 2-6. He is now 3-2 in Big Sky matches.