The Eastern Washington University tennis teams are continuing competition this weekend.
The men will be on the road to face Big Sky's Portland State on Friday, Feb. 17 along with playing the University of Portland on Saturday, Feb. 18. Matches begin at Noon on Friday and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
The women will be competing at home against Big Sky's Northern Colorado on Feb. 18, which is also their first Big Sky competition of the year. Matches will begin at 10 a.m. in the Jim Thorpe Fieldhouse. Admission is free and open to the public.
For the men . . .
The men's tennis team is coming off a very monumental 5-2 win over Sacramento State for the first time since 2008. Sac State was previously undefeated in the Big Sky before playing Eastern. The Eagles also defeated Whitworth University 7-0 in the same day.
Senior Robert Dula earned the Big Sky Player of the Week honors going into this week's matches. The senior went undefeated in the No. 1 singles and doubles spot in the double header against Sac State and Whitworth. Dula is also currently ranked No. 19 by the ITA in the Northwest Region.
EWU will travel to Portland State for their second Big Sky competition so far this year. The last time Eastern competed against PSU was on Feb. 20, 2016 where the Eagles won 6-1.
This season, the Vikings are 1-6 overall and 0-1 in conference. Their one win is off of Willamette University. They have previously lost to Hawaii, Pacific (Calif.), Portland, Sacramento State and Seattle University.
The last time Eastern played Portland University was on Feb. 15, 2013, losing 6-1. The Pilots are 4-1 so far this year and undefeated at home. The University of Washington gave them their one loss. They have defeated Portland State, Idaho, Seattle and Sacramento State so far.
Matches will begin at Noon against Portland State on Feb. 17 and they will start up again against Portland on Feb. 18 at 2:30 p.m.
For the women . . .
The women will continue home competition for the second week in a row with playing Northern Colorado on Feb. 18. Matches will begin at 10 a.m. in the Jim Thorpe Fieldhouse.
Eastern is coming off a 5-2 loss against Seattle University that took place in Cheney on Feb. 12. The team had close competition with the Redhawks throughout the day, but could not close the victory at the end.
Freshman Valentina Sottile battled her way to a victory with defeating her opponent in a tiebreaker. The victory was the second win for the freshman, the most for an Eagle on the team right now. Senior Erin Blessing got the second win for the Eagles, with splitting sets but her opponent retired in the third set, making Blessing the winner.
The Bears are coming off a Big Sky loss to Montana State by a score of 6-1. UNC is 2-3 on the season and 0-1 in conference. Northern Colorado's two wins come from CSU Pueblo and Metro State with both wins at a perfect 7-0. The one other loss came from Colorado with a score of 5-2.
