PORTLAND, Ore. — Seventh-ranked USD Men's Tennis (20-3, 5-0 WCC) continues its wonderful West Coast Conference play remaining undefeated after a commanding 5-1 victory over Portland at the Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center, Friday.
 
San Diego showed its toughness on the road, a theme for this season, finding themselves in several tiebreakers, but consistently grabbing the edge. USD continues its perfect start in the WCC, standalone in first place with the ability to clinch it's fourth straight conference regular season title with a win in its next match Sunday. 
 
The Toreros set the tone early by securing the doubles point, when National No. 3 duo of Oliver Tarvet and Stian Klaassen sparked the momentum the team needed with a 6-3 win, beginning a winning streak of three in a row.
 
After No. 2 doubles knotted the score for the Pilots, the decisive point came down to USD's Blake Kasday and Nikhil Niranjan in a tense back-and-forth match on court three that had the Pilots having the lead six different times until the tiebreaker, which ended with an impressive 7-6 (7-3) finish that clinched the Toreros the first point of the day.
 
While only three courts were available, San Diego's top three took the court first in singles. No.3 nationally-ranked Oliver Tarvet started with a bang as he won the first set 6-0, then displayed his grit, finishing a second set with an ace in a tiebreaker to win 7-6 (7-4). ITA No. 83 Savriyan Danilov followed with a clinical win over his opponent in consecutive 6-3 sets, on court two. 
 
 It was Torero redshirt-junior Stian Klaassen who battled through two mirrored tie-breakers to start off the match, in which he came back tying the second set at six-a-piece and ultimately ending the highly contested three-set match with a 7-5 win that clinched the USD win, 6-7, (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.
 
In the fresh slate of matches on the same courts as both teams decided to play out, freshman Adrien Berrut started it off with a smooth pair of 6-2 sets for USD's fifth unanswered point. Portland grabbed one back in a super tie-break third set against Neo Niedner at No. 4 singles. 
 
Blake Kasday claimed the first set of his match on court six, before the match went unfinished, settling Friday's final score at 5-1. 
 
Up Next
No. 7 San Diego will be back in action in an attempt to claim it's fourth consecutive WCC regular season championship with a win on Sunday, on the road at Gonzaga, with a start time set for 10 a.m.. 
 
Results
 
No. 7 San Diego 5, Portland 1
Doubles
1. #3 Oliver Tarvet/Stian Klaassen (USD) def. Maxim Groysman/Stefan Skobelev (POR) 6-3 
2. Nikola Keremedchiev/Cade Fernando (POR) def. Adrien Berrut/Savriyan Danilov (USD) 6-4 
3. Blake Kasday/Nikhil Niranjan (USD) def. Tom Garcia/Lucas Kimelman (POR) 7-6 (7-3)

Singles
1. #3 Oliver Tarvet (USD) def. Maxim Groysman (POR) 6-0, 7-6 (7-4)
2. #83 Savriyan Danilov (USD) def. Nikola Keremedchiev (POR) 6-3, 6-3
3. Stian Klaassen (USD) def. Stefan Skobelev (POR) 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 
4. Tom Garcia (POR) def. Neo Niedner (USD) 6-4, 3-6, [10-7]
5. Adrien Berrut (USD) def. Lucas Kimelman (POR) 6-2, 6-2
6. Cade Fernando (POR) vs. Blake Kasday (USD) 4-6, unfinished
 
Match Notes:
San Diego 20-3, 5-0 WCC; National ranking #7 Portland 7-8, 1-4 WCC
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (2,1,3,5,4,6)