Portland Drops Hard-Fought Match at No. 40 Washington State
PULLMAN, Wash. --- Senior Sabine Fuchs and freshman Tori Troesch forced third sets in their respective singles matches, but the No. 40 Washington State Cougars closed each match to post a 7-0 victory over the visiting Portland Pilots Saturday at the WSU Hollingbery Fieldhouse.
Portland falls back to .500 with the loss, while Washington State improves to 9-2.
“The doubles point, and Sabine, Valeska, and Tori’s matches were very close,” Portland head coach Susie Campbell-Gross said after the match. “We needed to take our opportunities when we had them. This is a tough outcome to a hard fought battle.”
WSU collected the doubles point when Olga Musilovich and Ksenia Googe closed out Anastasia Polyakova and Maja Mladenovic, 8-5. Portland’s duo hung close to the Cougars with Sabine Fuchs and Milagros Cubelli tied, 6-6, in the third doubles match.
Portland’s seniors gave the Cougars’ trouble from the second and third singles positions. Fuchs matched up against Googe, dropping the first set 7-6 before winning the second set by the same score. Googe was able to hold on in the third set, however, with a 10-5 victory.
On the adjacent court, Valeska Hoath was causing problems for Andjela Kankaras, forcing a tiebreaker in the first set that resulted in WSU’s favor. The second set proved to be just as challenging, with Kankaras needing seven games once again to escape with the straight set victory.
Freshman Tori Troesch continued to show her grit from the sixth spot. After winning the first set, Troesch narrowly missed winning an intense second set, losing the tiebreaker 14-12. Dajana Ognjenovic stepped up against Troesch in the final set, however, edging Portland’s freshman 11-9 to seal the shutout.
Portland now heads to Lewiston, Idaho, where they take on the No. 9 Lewis & Clark State Warriors Sunday at 9 a.m.
