By Editor In Chief, Editor-in-chief
The men's and women's tennis teams finished their respective home seasons in fine style last weekend, each coming away with a win over the Eagles of Eastern Washington University. The men lost two singles matches and one doubles match in their 5-2 victory while the women, coming off an East Coast road trip, pulled out a close win, 4-3.
After a grueling road trip to North Carolina over spring break, the Pilot women had some jet lag to catch up with before their home match against Eastern. On Monday March 13, the team lost a close match to Elon University before rebounding with a convincing win over UNC Greensboro, 6-1. Two days later, the Pilots dropped the final match of the trip to Davidson by a score of 5-2.
According to sophomore Anna Gullickson, the tournament was a success from the team standpoint, not necessarily because of their record but because of the experience gained from playing new teams in unfamiliar environments, especially an environment where the weather is more conducive to tennis.
"It was a lot of fun to go out and play in a new atmosphere," Gullickson said. "Our team unity is at the best it's ever been and [the trip] provided a kind of anonymity that we hadn't had in a while."
Against Eastern at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center, Portland squeezed out a victory by taking four of the six singles matches despite losing the doubles point. The Pilots swept the 2-4 spots behind straight-set victories by juniors Lindsay Griffin and Christina Feyen and sophomore Jenna Tanzer, but the real drama was provided by freshman Audree Jenks at the sixth singles spot.
With the score tied at five games apiece in the first set, Jenks held off the Eagles' Sayaka Yoshimoto's attempts to force a tie-breaker and took the set by a score of 7-5 before securing a Pilot victory with a 6-2 triumph in the second.
"About halfway through my first set I knew whether we won or lost the match was up to me," Jenks said in an e-mail. "This was my first time being in a situation like this so I felt a little nervous but once I got through the first set I got into my rhythm and was able to focus. It was my job to make her make the mistake ... it was great to be able to pull through for my team."
Tanzer was the only team member to be victorious in both singles and doubles competition. The Pilots improved to 9-5 on the season while the Eagles dropped to 3-9.
In men's competition at the LP Tennis Center, the team picked up a victory in the last home match of the 2007 season behind a strong performance from junior Charlie Yemm. Yemm defeated Eastern's Nico Reigo de Dios in straight sets before joining teammate Alex Strom in an 8-2 victory over Reigo de Dios and fellow Eagle Patrick Millican.
"Filip [Zivkovic] and Charlie [Yemm] are really coming on strong for us," Portland Head Coach Aaron Gross said in a post-match press release. "They are both transfers who have had an immediate impact on our program and I think their development has been phenomenal as the season has progressed."
In other match scores, the Pilots swept the 2-5 singles spots, with victories by freshman Zivkovic, sophomore Joel Kincaid, Yemm and senior Colby Jager, while senior Strom split with Pannhara Mam in a loss at the number one spot and freshman Evan Schleining split and lost in the sixth spot. Portland won two out of three doubles to take the lone doubles point, with the number three win by Kincaid and Schleining accompanying Strom and Yemm's victory.
With the win, the team moves to 8-4 on the season while EWU falls to 5-6.
In other tennis news, the Pilot men travel to Boise State for the Spring Break Tournament on March 28, and follow it up with the West Coast Conference Championships from April 20-22 in San Diego, Calif.
