WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Saturday's gorgeous weather was equaled by top-flight tennis on the Whitman Tennis Courts as host Whitman College drubbed visiting Pacific Lutheran University, 9-0, in an early-afternoon Northwest Conference match then pasted an 8-1 non-conference victory on visiting Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) College in a match that followed.
Whitman (19-5, 12-0 NWC), which clinched the regular season conference crown with Friday's home win over University of Puget Sound, earned sweeps of Saturday's opponents with the day's wins. The Missionaries opened the spring portion of their schedule with a 6-1 victory at Lewis-Clark State (4-10) on February 7 and handed PLU (5-12, 5-6 NWC) a 9-0 defeat on the Lutes' home courts March 8.
Robert Carter was one of the few to play in four matches for Whitman Saturday, coming away with doubles and singles wins against both the Lutes and Warriors. Carter teamed with
Jake Hoeger at 1-doubles for an 8-2 win against PLU then rolled to a straight-set (6-2, 6-2) win over the Lutes' Sam Stadter at No. 1 singles. In the late match with LCSC Carter paired with
Petar Jivkov for an 8-3 victory at 2-doubles then cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 6 singles.
Gary Ho was the only other player on the roster to take on double duty against PLU, coming away with an 8-2 victory with
James Rivers at No. 2 doubles followed by a 6-3, 6-2 win at 2-singles.
Rivers and Hoeger completed three matches Saturday. Rivers won all three while the only blemish on Hoeger's outing was a narrow 8-6 loss with
Zach Hewlin at 1-doubles against Lewis-Clark State.
Hewlin and Jivkov provided if not the most exciting matches Saturday, then at least the longest outings on the courts. With the outcome of the match against LCSC already in hand, the Whitman pair remained on the courts playing out their singles matches.
Hewlin finished first with a win at No. 1 over Yonas Woldetsadik. Hewlin moved ahead at the start with a 6-2 opening-set victory but Woldetsadik battled back to even the match with a 7-5 win in the second, sending the match into a third-set super-tiebreaker. The pair slugged it out until Hewlin prevailed, 10-7, to take the set and match.
At 3-singles Jivkov and the Warriors' Jeff Su wanted to give the crowd their money's worth, playing into tiebreakers in each set. Jivkov stole the first set with a 7-6 win on a 7-5 tiebreaker, but Su bounced back to take the second, using an 8-6 tiebreaker to win 7-6 and knot the match up for the ump-teenth time. The third set super-tiebreaker mirrored Hewlin's with Jivkov scratching out a 10-7 win to capture the last point of the day.
Both the Whitman men's and women's teams captured their respective regular-season NWC titles bringing both of the NWC postseason tournaments to Walla Walla. The men will play a pair of semifinal matches Saturday -- following the women's tournament's championship match -- with the semifinal winners advancing into Sunday's championship final. The conference tournament champion earns an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III national tournament in May.
