WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Red-hot Cal Lutheran, winning four close decisions in singles, blanked the Whitman College men's tennis team 9-0 Sunday morning in in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Cal Lutheran, which nipped top-ranked UC-Santa Cruz 5-4 on Saturday, is 12-0 to start its season.

Today's loss snapped Whitman's 13-match winning streak. The most recent national rankings, released earlier this week, had Cal Lutheran at No. 10 and Whitman at No. 26.

Whitman, which bumped off No. 17 Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday, is playing a second match today against UC-Santa Cruz, the defending NCAA DIII national champions (check back later for those results).

Chris Bailey

Cal Lutheran got the early jump on Whitman by taking all three matches in doubles. But the real story came in singles, where the Kingsmen won a trio of three-set decisions, in addition to a close two-set battle in the No. 1 match.

Andrew Giuffrida, a Division I transfer from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, got the the win for Cal Lutheran at No. 1 singles with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) victory over Whitman's Matt Solomon.

Whitman, now 14-2 on the season, came up short in three-set decisions at No. 3 singles, where Etienne Moshevich lost 4-6, 6-0, 6-4; at No. 4, where Chris Bailey fell 2-6, 6-2, 6-4; and at No. 6, where Conor Holton-Burke lost 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 10-3.

Whitman's Jasper Follows dropped a 6-3, 6-4 decision at No. 5 singles, and Jeff Tolman stumbled 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2.

The best match in doubles came at No. 1, where Giuffrida and Ballou tallied an 8-5 victory over Solomon and Moshevich.

Whitman's Christoph Fuchs and Quin Miller fell 8-3 at No. 2 doubles. Tolman and Jake Cappel lost by the same score at No. 3.

- 30 - 

CONTACT: Dave Holden
Sports Information Director
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash.
509 527-5902; holden@whitman.edu