VANCOUVER, Wash. – The Portland State women's tennis team was upended by Sacramento State, 7-0 at Club Green Meadows in Vancouver, Wash., on Sunday afternoon. The loss marked the team's final home contest of the 2013 season as the team celebrated the careers of two of its seniors, Nayanatara Vadali and Marti Pellicano.

The senior tandem was honored in a ceremony before the match as head coach Jay Sterling presented the student athletes with senior day plaques and spoke about their contributions to the PSU program.

“These two really did an amazing job of sharing our vision,” Sterling said. “When I first took over the program I remember meeting with them and saying, this is where we want the program to be and these are the goals we want to accomplish, and they bought in and shared that vision and believed it was a possibility. We would not be where we are right now without the work ethic and the support of these two fine athletes.”

Both Vadali and Pellicano leave Portland State having had their finest seasons in 2013.

Vadali has proved to be a successful doubles player this season, teaming with Marina Todd and posting the best doubles record of her career, which is also the squad's third-best doubles mark. 

Meanwhile Pellicano really blossomed into a statistical leader in her final year, as the Tualatin, Ore., native is one of four Portland State student athletes to have reached the double-digit wins plateau, which marks first time that more than one PSU player has reached that number of victories in a single season. She also matched and broke the former season singles wins record as she has tallied 13 victories in 2013 with one match to go.

Following the ceremony the Viks went to work in doubles play, hoping to upset the No. 1 team in the Big Sky, Sacramento State.
The Hornets struck first from court No. 1 as Rebeca Delgado and Olivia Boija downed Vadali and Todd, 8-2.

Sacramento State clinched the doubles point on court No. 3 as Sophie Lohscheidt and Andrea Gomez Carus defeated the PSU team of Kelsey Frey and Megan Govi, 8-3.

The team of Pellicano and Mandy Mallen put up the biggest fight in the doubles contest keeping pace with the Hornets team of Katharina Knoebl and Jennifer Nguyen, but eventually fell, 8-5, as Sacramento State completed the doubles sweep.

The story was similar in singles play as the Vikings fought hard but were bested on all six singles courts.

Delgado tallied the first win for Sacramento State, beating Mallen in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0, while Nguyen made it 3-0 in favor of the Hornets as she took down, Todd, 6-3, 6-0.

The match was clinched on court No. 5 as Alexa McDonald fell to Knoebl, 6-2, 6-0.

Boija made it 5-0, in favor of Sacramento State, at line No. 4, as Pellicano couldn't solve the Hornet freshman, battling back from a 5-0 deficit, losing 6-3 in the first set and 6-0 in the second.

On court No. 3, Govi fought back after a tough first set loss, to take a 6-5 lead over Lohscheidt in the second frame. The sophomore appeared to be in the driver seat but Lohscheidt countered and took the next game to force a second-set tie breaker. Govi was up 2-1 early in the tiebreaker but was eventaully bested, 7-4, falling by a final score of 6-1, 7-6 (4).

Meanwhile on line No. 6, Vadali battled with Saskia Angerer as the two traded games back and forth. Both Vadali and Angerer played to a seven-point tiebreaker in the first stanza, but the Hornet freshman pulled away, beating Vadali, 7-0, and taking the first frame. Angerer then cruised in the second set, to take the match 7-6 (0), 6-0, as Sacramento State earned the clean sweep, winning, 7-0.

The Portland State women's tennis team now has one remaining match as the team concludes its 2013 slate with a road match against Eastern Washington, in Cheney, Wash., on April 19. The match is slated for 12 p.m.
 

Singles competition

1. DELGADO, Rebeca (SAC) def. MALLEN, Mandy (PSU) 6-0, 6-0

2. NGUYEN, Jennifer (SAC) def. TODD, Marina (PSU) 6-3, 6-0

3. LOHSCHEIDT, Sophie (SAC) def. GOVI, Megan (PSU) 6-1, 7-6 (7-4)

4. BOIJA, Olivia (SAC) def. PELLICANO, Marti (PSU) 6-3, 6-1

5. KNOEBL, Katharina (SAC) def. MCDONALD, Alexa (PSU) 6-2, 6-0

6. ANGERER, Saskia (SAC) def. VADALI, Nayanatara (PSU) 7-6 (7-0), 6-0

 

Doubles competition

1. DELGADO, Rebeca/BOIJA, Olivia (SAC) def. VADALI, Nayanatara/TODD, Marina (PSU) 8-2

2. KNOEBL, Katharina/NGUYEN, Jennifer (SAC) def. MALLEN, Mandy/PELLICANO, Marti (PSU) 8-5

3. LOHSCHEIDT, Sophie/GOMEZ CARUS, Andrea (SAC) def. GOVI, Megan/FREY, Kelsey (PSU) 8-3

 

Match Notes

Sacramento State 11-13, 10-0

Portland State 11-12, 2-7

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (1,2,5,4,3,6)