Men's Tennis | 3/8/2015 8:18:00 PM
BELLEVUE, Wash. – Whitman College's 13th-ranked men's tennis team continued its weekend march through the northwest part of the state, winning a pair of matches by identical 9-0 scores Sunday. The afternoon match saw the Missionaries take down host Bellevue College in a non-conference contest which followed a morning Northwest Conference bout against host Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.
The wins move the Missionaries' records to 10-1 overall and 5-0 in the league. Bellevue drops to 0-2 and PLU falls to 2-5 overall and 2-4 in the NWC.
Robert Carter and
Chase Friedman handled the top of the order in doubles play for Whitman.,The pair won their early match at No. 1 doubles by a score of 8-2 against PLU then bettered that by a game (8-2) against the 1-doubles pairing from Bellevue.
Friedman won the day at No. 1 singles, taking down PLU's NoelÂ
Oteng-Mensah in straight sets, 6-3 and 6-1, and finished with a 6-1, 6-4 victory in the same slot against Valentin Podgornyy of Bellevue.Carter rolled to a 6-0, 6-3 win at 3-singles against PLU before handling the No. 2 spot against Bellevue, completing a straight-set win over Bellevue's ShinyaÂ
Maruyama by scores of 6-2 and 7-5.
Adam Rapoport teamed with Alex Noyes to win a pair of doubles matches -- at No. 3 vs. PLU and No. 2 vs. Bellevue -- and both captured their singles battles against the two teams. Rapoport won at 5-singles in the conference match against the Lutes and culminated his day with a win at No. 4 singles at Bellevue. Noyes smoked PLU's John Woelfel without losing a game at No. 6 singles then slid up the ladder a spot to 4-singles against Bellevue where he added another point with a 6-3, 6-0 win.
Other winners on the day included Phillip Locklear and Gary Ho in doubles and singles against PLU, and Luke Targett and Jacob Christensen in singles and doubles against Bellevue.
Whitman travels to Claremont, California, for its next matches as a participant in the Stag-Hen Invitational hosted by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer on March 13-14. The Missionaries' opening opponent will be the top-ranked team in the country, Trinity (Texas) University.
