WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- The Whitman College men's tennis team, ranked No. 19 nationally to start the NCAA Division III spring season, was no match for NCAA Division I Eastern Washington on Saturday in Cheney, Wash.

La Cava (left), Holton-Burke

Whitman, the three-time defending Northwest Conference champ, dropped its season-opening match by a 7-0 count.

The Eagles, led by Brazilian sophomore Fernando Mussolini, ran their early season record to 2-1.

Whitman nearly broke into the scoring column in the opening round of doubles.

Junior Conor Holton-Burke and freshman Andrew La Cava got off to a quick start at No. 1 doubles, building a 6-3 lead. But Mussolini and partner Julian Sanchez, a junior from Spain, reeled off five straight games to win 8-6.

Holton-Burke and La Cava, the reigning ITA Pacific Northwest Small College doubles champions, start the spring season with a No. 11 national ranking.

Senior Quin Miller and sophomore Jeff Tolman dropped a close 8-5 decision at No. 2 doubles, falling to Chad Henninger and Kyle Koertje.

At No. 3, senior Chris Bailey and sophomore Sam Sadeghi lost 8-1 to Chris Eriksson and Stefan Simikic.

While it wasn't part of the official team scoring, a fourth doubles match was played with sophomore Matt Tesmond and freshman Will Huskey losing 8-5 to Luis Altimires and Flavio Malagutti, a second Brazilian/Spanish duo playing for Eastern Washington.

Sam Sadeghi

In singles, Sadeghi nearly picked up a point for Whitman at No. 5, losing 6-4, 4-6, 10-4 to James Russell.

Tolman and Bailey, playing at No. 3 and No. 4 singles, respectively, fell by the same 7-5, 6-1 scores. Tolman lost to Sanchez while Bailey came up short against Henninger.

La Cava played at No. 1 singles, dropping a 6-3, 6-2 decision to Mussolini. Simikic downed Holton-Burke 6-3, 6-4 at No. 2.

Tesmond rounded out the Whitman singles line-up, falling 6-1, 6-0 to Koertje.

Two exhibition matches were played in singles with Miller notching a Whitman victory at No. 7 with a 3-6, 6-4, 10-6 triumph over Malagutti.

Whitman freshman Steven Roston played at No. 8 and was trailing Altimires 3-6, 5-5 when the match was halted because of time restrictions.

Whitman resumes its early season slate when it plays Sunday, Feb. 13, at Lewis-Clark State.

The Missionaries, who have won their last 66 consecutive Northwest Conference regular matches, look to continue that dominance when they head to western Oregon to play Pacific and George Fox on Sunday, Feb. 20.

Please check back in the next week or two for a preseason preview of this spring's Whitman team.

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