EUGENE, Ore. – The Portland men’s tennis team opened the 2024 dual season with a 6-1 loss to the Purdue Boilermakers Saturday afternoon at the Student Tennis Center on the University of Oregon campus.
Portland freshman Stefan Skobelev picked up his first dual win with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Mujtaba Ali-Khan at No. 6 singles to put the Pilots (0-1) on the board.
Purdue opened the match by securing a competitive doubles point with 6-4 wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions. Portland’s No. 2 tandem of Oscar Brown and Skobolev earned a 6-4 victory.
The Pilots and Boilermakers battled at most of the singles positions with Brown and Maxim Groysman dropping their matches at No. 1 and No. 4, respectively, in three sets. Purdue picked up straight set wins in the other three singles matches.
“I’m glad there is only one first match per year,” Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. “We played pretty nervous and didn’t take on the chances that we had. What we are looking for as the year goes along is to win more of the close matches within the dual match. We lost a couple of pivotal first sets and breakers that were for the taking and didn’t finish the doubles the way I wanted. Max and Stefan both played good tennis today and we had a few others play well, but didn’t get the job done. Purdue is a very good team, but it is a disappointing result to start the season. I’m confident we will keep getting better and put the experience to good use going forward.”
The Pilots will return home to host the Seattle U Redhawks on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 10 a.m. at the Louisiana Pacific Tennis Center. Live coverage links will be available at PortlandPilots.com.
Purdue 6, Portland 1
Eugene, Ore. (Student Tennis Center)
January 20, 2024
Singles
1. Aleksa Krivokapic (PUR) def. Oscar Brown (POR) 6-3, 1-6, 6-2
2. Marino Jakic (PUR) def. Nicolas Ocana (POR) 7-6, 6-4
3. Stefan Simeunovic (PUR) def. Luka Vukovic (POR) 6-1, 6-0
4. Juan David Velasquez (PUR) def. Maxim Groysman (POR) 6-7, 7-6, 11-9
5. Alexander Ekstrand (PUR) def. Nikolas Tvedt (POR) 7-6, 6-3
6. Stefan Skobelev (POR) def. Mujtaba Ali-Khan (PUR) 6-1, 6-4
Doubles
1. Jakic/Velasquez (PUR) def. Vukovic/Tvedt (POR) 6-4
2. Brown/Skobelev (POR) def. Ekstrand/Krivokapic (PUR) 6-4
3. Simeunovic/Soham Purohit (PUR) def. Groysman/Ocana (POR) 6-4
Match Notes:
Portland 0-1
Purdue 1-2