The Sacramento State men’s tennis team continued their trend of close contests today with their 4-3 loss to the Portland State University Vikings. Eight of their last 12 matches have been decided by one point.

For the Hornets this loss was significant, because of the seeding they will receive in the Big Sky Conference Tournament. With this being their last regular season conference competition they had the opportunity to climb into the three seed for the tournament. With the loss, it is guaranteed they will play in the five or six seed.

Portland State had been struggling heading into this match, losing seven matches in a row. They are 6-11 on the season and 3-6 in the Big Sky.

Sac State lost the doubles point as the No. 1 pairing, with Tom Miller and Roy Brandys lost 6-4 and Marek Marksoo and Sean Kolar lost 6-4. The Hornets’ freshmen duo, Kasparas Zemaitelis and Christopher Clayton, won 6-4 in the No. 3 doubles position. Zemaitelis and Clayton improved to 8-5 this year as a doubles team.

Brandys continued to play as the No.1 singles player, but lost in three sets to the Vikings Stuart Tierney 6-4, 0-6 , 3-6.

Zemaitelis was the No. 2 singles player, but lost in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6. He is 2-4 this season when playing in the second spot for Sac State.

Kolar competed as the No. 3 singles player and won in straight sets 6-2, 7-5. He is starting to gain momentum having won three of his last four matches and is now 10-8 this season.

Marksoo completed his first singles match in nearly two months and came out with the victory as the No. 4 singles player. He won in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 against Portland State’s Brent Wheeler.

Tom Miller competed in the No. 5 spot, but lost in three sets that went to tiebreak 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4). Miller had been on a three-match winning streak prior to the loss.

Joaquin Marquez rounded out the lineup as the No. 6 singles player and won in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. Marquez is on a five-match winning streak and is now 9-3 in singles this season.

The Hornets will have one final regular season match before the conference tournament on April 15 against Santa Clara University.