University of Portland Men's Tennis

Gross was named the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year after leading Portland to a 13-9 overall record, 5-4 WCC mark and third place in the league standings. Senior Michel Hu Kwo was an All-WCC First Team selection, while junior Reid deLaubenfels was honorable mention. Despite losing four impact seniors from the 2014 squad and featuring four true freshmen in the 2015 lineup, Gross guided the Pilots to another season that saw the team ranked repeatedly, a 12-8 overall record and 5-4 WCC finish. Senior Steffen Dierauf earned All-WCC First Team honors, while deLaubenfels and freshman Michail Pervolarakis were honorable mention selections. In 2012, Portland reached a program-best national ranking of No. 45 after starting the year 7-0. Recent history has treated the Pilots well as 2010 graduate Filip Zivkovic became the first player in school history to earn All-WCC honors all four years on The Bluff. Zivkovic was a three-time first team honoree in singles and was a second team recipient once. He also earned All-WCC doubles honors three times, being ranked as high as No. 36 nationally with partner Evan Schleining in 2009. Gross and the Pilots were nationally ranked for three weeks in the spring of 2007 and finished with a 13-8 overall record. Portland went 2-3 against ranked competition and finished 3-1 against WCC schools during the regular season. The doubles tandem of Zivkovic and Colby Jager earned All-WCC First Team honors. Gross enjoyed a banner year during the 2005 season as the Pilots went 18-6 during the season, including an 11-match winning streak that stretched from January to late March. For the first time in school history, the Pilots enjoyed a midseason national ranking, entering the polls at No. 73 and reaching as high as No. 70 later in the year. The team ended the season ranked No. 13 in the difficult West Region. The Pilots had a fourth-place finish at the WCC Championships. Throughout his tenure, Gross has coached one All-American (Travis Parrott, 2002), 21 All-WCC First or Second Team selections in singles (Jeff Nunnenkamp, 1999; Parrott, 2002; Peter Malacek, 2002; Borvanov, 2005; Loucks, 2006; Zivkovic , 2007/2008/2009/2010; Alex Ferrero, 2011; Ratan Gill, 2013; Michel Hu Kwo, 2014; Steffen Dierauf, 2015) and doubles (Joe Tostenrude and Nick Tostenrude, 1999; Loucks and James Redpath, 2005; Redpath and Scott Kennel, 2006; Zivkovic and Jager, 2007; Zivkovic and Charlie Yemm, 2008; Zivkovic and Schleining, 2009/2010; Gill and Ferrero, 2014;), and has seen three of his players ranked in the ITA's Top 100 (Malacek, Nunnenkamp and Parrott) and one doubles team (Zivkovic and Schleining). Gross continued to coach Parrott into his professional career that included winning the 2009 U.S. Open Mixed Doubles Championships and an ATP doubles ranking of No. 25 in June of 2009. Roman Borvanov, a 2004 graduate, also enjoyed a successful professional career. Borvanov steadily climbed the ATP singles rankings list during a nine-year pro career with highs of No. 200 in singles and No. 182 in doubles. Prior to his work with the Portland program, Gross established The Academy, the first junior tennis program of its kind in the state of Oregon. He has directed The Academy, based at Portlands Eastmoreland Racquet Club, since its inception in 1994. The Academy consists of regionally and nationally ranked juniors. His students claimed eight consecutive (1994-2001) Oregon 4A High School Boys Championships and three others have gone on to claim three USTA national titles. As a player, Gross was the Pacific Northwests top-ranked junior in 1986 and won two Oregon prep singles state championships, while competing for Lincoln High School in 1985 and 1987. He went on to play No. 4 singles at the University of Texas from 1987-89 and then transferred to the University of Washington where he played No. 1 singles for the Huskies from 1990-92. Gross also competed on the ATP satellite tour in Canada in 1991 and participated in the ATP Challenger qualifying tournaments from 1988-90. He was the Pacific Northwests No. 2-ranked mens open player in 1989.      Head Coach GROSS RECORDS * Non-WCC Tourney Matches; WCC Round Robin Schedule Began in 2011-12