BEAVERTON, Ore. - The Portland State women's tennis team completed its slate of home matches on Saturday afternoon with a narrow defeat to Idaho, falling to the Vandals 4-3 at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center. The Vikings dropped to 5-9 overall and 2-5 in Big Sky action, while the Vandals are now 10-5 on the year with a 4-1 conference record.
 
Portland State opened the scoring by securing the doubles point. After dropping the first match at court one, a resounding 6-2 victory from Nika Beukers and Momo Yoshimura at court two evened the score. Court three found Makoto Ohara and Elizabeth Strongina trailing early before the pair showed impressive resolve and roared back to a 7-6(6) win to earn the first point of the day and an early lead for the Vikings.
 
The Vandals went back-to-back at Nos. 4 and 6 to snatch the lead before Capu Sanoner's victory at court one brought the teams even again. The senior was playing her first match of the season at No. 1 and didn't waver. Sanoner soundly defeated Idaho's Sepkin 6-2, 6-3.
 
Idaho won the next two matches on courts five and three to clinch the match. Playing at No. 2, Elizabeth Strongina suffered a first-set loss before seizing momentum and pushing her opponent to a third set. Strongina's tenacity proved beneficial and she was able to claim a 7-3 victory in the tiebreaker.
 
At the conclusion of the match, the team and fans in attendance honored the four seniors on the roster: Sanoner, Ohara, Yoshimura, and Maddie Egan. "I'm really proud of how we competed today," Viking Head Coach Kyle Russell said. "The girls played hard for our seniors, and that's just a testament to the leadership that they have brought to this team. It's unfortunate that we came up short for them, but there's still more tennis left to play!"
 
The Vikings have a week off before taking a California road trip to play at UC Davis on April 18th (2:00 pm). They then close the regular season at conference foe Sacramento State on April 20th (11:00 am).