BEAVERTON, Ore. – The Portland State women's tennis team endured several narrow defeats on Sunday at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center, falling 6-1 to Northern Arizona.

The Vikings (4-7, 3-3 BSC) pushed the first-place Lumberjacks (11-3, 5-0 BSC) to their limits, with a doubles match that went to a tiebreaker to decide the opening point, as well as four singles matches that each went to a third set.

Northern Arizona took the first victory of the day at No. 1 doubles, but the Vikings quickly responded with a 6-2 win on court two, as Ayra Salima and Nene Uemura defeated Patrycja Niewiadomska and Laura Duhl. The opening point came down to the match at No. 3, where Scarlett Perkins and Hana Abdelhamid battled back from a 4-1 deficit, eventually taking the lead at 6-5 before falling in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (1).

The Lumberjacks needed just three singles victories to clinch the dual, but the Vikings made them work for it. They secured two of those victories in straight sets, winning at No. 3 and No. 5 to take a 3-0 lead. The remaining matches all went to deciding sets, with NAU claiming three of them. Three Vikings—Nika Beukers (No. 1), Abdelhamid (No. 2), and Salim (No. 6)—won their opening sets, but each of their opponents battled back, completing comebacks to win on all three courts.

Kasumi Hirayama earned the Vikings' only point of the day, completing a comeback victory on court four—a hallmark of her season so far. After dropping her opening set 6-0, the freshman powered through, winning the next two sets 6-4, 6-4 to defeat Andrea Noguera 0-6, 6-4, 6-4.

As they approach the final stretch of their regular season, the Vikings will take two weekends off before returning to action on Monday, April 7, for their final home match of the season at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center, facing Sacramento State at 10:00 a.m.
 

Northern Arizona 6, Portland State 1

Doubles Results
No. 1: Shoshyna/Jantacova (NAU) def. Beukers/Hirayama (PSU) 6-2
No. 2: Salim/Uemura (PSU) def. Niewiadomska/Duhl (NAU) 6-2
No. 3: Noguera/Kovalenko (NAU) def. Perkins/Abdelhamid (PSU) 7-6 (7-1)

Order of finish: 1, 2, 3

Singles Results
No. 1: Daryna Shoshyna (NAU) def. Nika Beukers (PSU) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3
No. 2: Patrycja Niewiadomska (NAU) def. Hana Abdelhamid (PSU) 2-6, 6-0, 6-1
No. 3: Laura Duhl (NAU) def. Nene Uemura (PSU) 6-3, 6-1
No. 4: Kasumi Hirayama (PSU) def. Andrea Noguera (NAU) 0-6, 6-4, 6-4
No. 5: Elen Jantacova (NAU) def. Scarlett Perkins (PSU) 6-3, 6-1
No. 6: Ruslana Kovalenko (NAU) def. Ayra Salim (PSU) 3-6, 7-5, 7-5

Order of finish: 5, 3, 2, 4, 1, 6