Portland State women’s tennis coach Jay Sterling gathers his players prior to their match against UC Davis on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2018, at Club Green Meadows in Vancouver. (Jeff Klein/The Columbian) Photo Gallery
Outside it’s a dreary, gray, chilly and wet January day.
Inside is a different story where it’s bright, music is blaring and tennis balls are being hit as if to coax a spring day out of the winter doldrums.
This is Portland State tennis at Club Green Meadows where PSU banners hang behind every court.
The Vikings women and men have made Vancouver their home court for the past eight seasons. And they are more than willing to share the fun of their matches with Clark County.
The program came across the Columbia River after PSU women’s coach Jay Sterling started looking for a place the Vikings could call their own. When he arrived at PSU in 2009 from Georgia, the Vikings shared courts at the University of Portland.
“I wanted to schedule more matches, and the bigger problem was four teams using one facility,” he said. “It was time to move out and find our own place and our own identity.”
Sterling said he visited many clubs around Portland that were willing to let the Vikings play, but there were always challenges with court availability and fan viewing.
“There were some great clubs willing to let us play matches, but there was no viewing,” he said. “Then I came across Club Green Meadows, met Nancy Ansboury (Club Green Meadows director of tennis), and it was perfect.”
Sterling enjoys having the great viewing space CGM offers overlooking the courts.
“It’s a great atmosphere for matches. The best viewing all the way down,” he said. “I was sold.”
Ansboury was once an assistant coach at Portland State so there was already a connection.
“It’s really nice for anyone to come and watch high-caliber tennis,” Ansboury said. “We often see kids who played in tournaments here come back as college players, or local people come and watch their team.”
Sterling said the support of CGM couldn’t be better.
“It might be weird that a Portland school is playing in Washington, but again it shows the connection of our two cities,” Sterling said. “We are intertwined in so many ways.”
PSU redshirt sophomore Brianna Thompson, from Brisbane, Australia, said the Vikings like playing off campus on nice courts. And it provides time for the Vikings to bond when traveling to Vancouver.
“The team likes ‘van time’ to be together. We eat breakfast first then play our match,” she said. “For us it’s normal now to play off campus and we really enjoy it. It’s a good group of girls.”
Sterling said a typical match day consists of leaving Portland 3 1/2 hours prior to playing, get breakfast then it’s game time.
“It’s family. Bonding happens over food,” he said.
Thompson said traveling to play a home match isn’t a problem.
“It’s just something we have to be flexible with,” she said. “We know being an urban campus it’s something we have to take into consideration.”
Due to campus renovations to the Stott Center, the Vikings lost their practice courts and now use St. John’s Racquet Center in Portland. The men’s team also uses Club Green Meadows to practice, as it was there on Monday in preparation for three matches in Vancouver this weekend.
“We are a true team of the community,” Sterling said.
Of course Sterling said what would make the match experience in Vancouver better would be to have the viewing deck at Club Green Meadows filled with tennis fans.
“Coming from Georgia and the SEC, the fun thing is you have crowds,” Sterling said. “I’d love to see more people at our matches. Many in Vancouver probably still don’t know we are here.”
College matches are designed to be fun. Fans are allowed to cheer and get rowdy between points, much like a Davis Cup match. Cheering even happens on court. It’s common to hear the players let out a “Let’s go Viks!” even before tossing a ball to serve.
Other benefits to the college tennis experience in Vancouver is the matches are free to attend and Club Green Meadows has a cafe and lounge for refreshments.
“It’s crazy fun,” Sterling said. “If you have tennis geeks, come on out.”
Did you know?
• The college spring season opens in January and runs through April. For those good enough, the season will last into May.
• Dual matches begin with three one-set doubles matches. The team that wins the majority gets one team point. That is followed by six best-of-three no-ad scoring singles matches worth one team point each. Whichever team has the most team points after the singles are played, plus the doubles result, is the winner.
• In NCAA Division I tennis there is no warm-up between players prior to a match. Also, the men play no service let. If a serve clips the top of the net and goes in, the ball must be played.
