On Friday afternoon a pair of seniors celebrated their final home match for the Portland State men's tennis team, and Avery West capped off his career in historic fashion. West and his doubles partner, Tommy Edwards, won their 23rd career match together as a team, breaking the program record. The Vikings also won their 10th match of the season and now have back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in program history.

Westwards already had a place in history as the best No. 1 doubles team of all-time - they have the best winning percentage and 10 more wins than any other No. 1 team - but now have cemented themselves atop the overall wins chart. They passed Brent Wheeler and Ethan Lopez in the process, which led to an emotional day for everyone involved. Wheeler passed away from Leukemia this summer and was part of Krauel's first team at PSU.

"For me personally, there are emotions of Avery and Tommy breaking that record, because it is a record held by Brent Wheeler and Ethan Lopez," Krauel said. "Brent almost four years ago to the day in this same spot celebrated his graduation and he passed away this last summer so his memory and thoughts of him are fresh in my mind today. The other seniors from that day, like Ian Risenhoover and Wil Cochrane, are out thriving and living their lives so it just shows you how precious life is.

"Avery and Tommy have had an amazing career and they are a great doubles team. They have great chemistry and they deserved to break that record, but at the same time it is nice to remember Brent."

West also won his singles match while playing at No. 4, sweeping through his final home match. The story is different for fellow senior Lucas Castelo Branco, who had just one season at Portland State. While his time on the Park Blocks may have been short, Castelo Branco is certainly leaving a mark on the record books.

He won 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (4) at No. 2 Saturday for his eighth career win at that spot, already ranking him in the top five in career wins there in school history. He also picked up a win in doubles while paired with Matteo Fortini. The duo have eight wins together at No. 2, one away from tying the program record at that line.  

"Lucas is having a wonderful season as a senior and Avery going through this stretch of good play is exciting for them," Krauel said of the seniors. "They both had very difficult matches in singles and won them both, and this in general was a good competitive match and will help us going forward toward Northern Colorado."

The rest of the Vikings backed up the seniors well, winning every doubles match and cruising in straight sets at the other four lines for the sweep. Matteo Fortini (No. 1) and Otto Holtari (No. 6) won by identical 6-2, 6-2 scores.

Sam Roberts and Tommy Edwards each had tight first sets before breaking away in the second set. Roberts won 6-4, 6-1 at No. 5 while Edwards won 6-4, 6-0 at No. 3.

The sweep comes in the final home match of the season for Portland State, which is in the midst of the most successful runs in program history. There are three 10-win seasons in Viking history, all of which have come in the last four years. Last season they won a program high 13 matches and the 23 wins in the past two years is the best span ever.

There are still four matches left on the 2019 schedule, plus the possibility of Big Sky tournament matches, for the Vikings to go after the 13-win mark. They return to action on April 12 and 14 when they will play Air Force and Northern Colorado.

"I feel like this is our best team ever and I think we're going to have the most wins of any team in school history this year," Krauel said. "Hopefully we build every year so it feels good to keep improving and moving forward as a program."

MATCH NOTES: The Vikings are now 2-1 all-time vs. Pacific … Tommy Edwards and Avery West are now the most successful doubles team in Portland State history, breaking the previous record of 22 wins by Brent Wheeler and Ethan Lopez … Matteo Fortini is now t-4th in program history with seven wins at No. 1 singles … Lucas Castelo Branco is now 5th in program history with eight career wins at No. 2 singles … Tommy Edwards is one win away from tying the program record for career wins at No. 3 … Castelo Branco/Fortini have eight wins as a team at No. 2 doubles, the second most in program history … Majeed Bukhari and Sam Roberts have 15 wins together at No. 3, the second most in program history.