BOZEMAN, Mont. – The Portland State women's tennis team couldn't pull off enough singles wins on Sunday to defeat Montana State, falling in a tight 4-3 match at the Bobcat-Anderson Tennis Center. The Vikings dropped to 9-11 overall and 3-3 in conference play, while the Bobcats improved to 5-12 on the year and 2-5 in Big Sky action.

"Today was definitely a challenge," Viking head coach Kyle Russell said. "The environment was a free for all and I don't think we played our best tennis on any of the courts. However, I can say that we gave everything we had physically. We managed to grab a couple of singles wins and I was especially happy with the way we scrapped out doubles."

For the third straight match, the Vikings claimed the doubles point. They did so on Sunday with wins on all three courts. Capu Sanoner and Masha Ponomareva improved to an impressive 10-0 record on the year with a 6-4 win at the No.1 position. On court two, Nika Beukers and Nell Arendt scratched their way to a 7-6 (2) victory over Andrea Cuquerella and Felicia Jayasaputra. Makoto Ohara and Emily Rees complete the sweep on court three, winning their match 6-4 over JJ Chen and Izabela Heinzova.

The Bobcats used their home-court advantage to pull off four wins in singles play. Ponomareva and Strongina were the two Vikings to pick up victories. Ponomareva earned a 6-3, 7-5 win at No. 1 singles while Strongina battled her way to a 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-4 win at the No. 3 spot. Sanoner, Beukers and Rees all fell to their Bobcat opponents in three-set matches, as MSU secured the 4-3 victory.

Portland State has two more matches remaining on its regular season schedule and will play both of them next weekend. They'll open the weekend at Idaho on Friday, April 14, followed by Eastern Washington on Sunday, April 16.