LEWISTON, Idaho. – The nation's 17th-ranked Division III men's tennis team, Whitman College, traveled East Saturday to take on two school out of its Division -- D-I University of Idaho and the NAIA's Lewis-Clark State College. The Missionaries, following NCAA D-I scoring protocol, finished the day with a closer-than-it-looks 5-2 loss to Idaho in the afternoon, and a 6-1 loss to host Lewis-Clark State in the evening.

The Whitties stepped onto the LC St. courts at noon to square off with an Idaho team that last spring won the Big Sky Conference tournament and appeared in the NCAA D-I national tournament.

Doubles action started the day and the Missionaries' No. 1 tandem of Zach Hewlin and Phillip Locklear worked for a win over the Vandals' top duo of Artem Vasheshnikov and Jackson Varney by a count of 7-5. Idaho answered back with a win at 2-doubles but at No. 3 the battle wore on until Lucas Coutinho and Mark Kovacs were able to steal a 7-5 win from Whitman's Robert Carter and Gary Ho to allow the Vandals to score the doubles point for the match.

Hewlin doubled up on wins for the day by taking a straight set, 6-4, 6-4, win at 1-singles from Idaho's top player, Odon Barta. However, the Vandals were able to snare wins at Nos. 2,, 3, 4 and 5 to finally subdue the upstart Missionaries.

Idaho's win at 5-singles nearly tilted Whitman's way as the Whitties' Petar Jivkov bounced back from an opening-set loss to Coutinho with a 6-4 win in the second. The match went to a third-set super-tiebreaker where Coutinho was able to prevail, 10-7, in the hotly-contested match.

Whitman did pick up another win, coming from Adam Rapoport at No. 6. He defeated Idaho's Peter Shin in straight sets, 6-2 and 7-5.

The trip and back-to-back matches affords head coach Jeff Northam the ability to spread playing time across his roster. Northam altered his lineup for the Lewis-Clark State match and saw positive results as his Missionaries picked up the doubles point of the match by winning at Nos. 1 and 3.

Rapoport teamed with Jivkov at 1-doubles where the tandem defeated LCSC's Jeff Su and Yonas Woldetsadik, 6-4. At No. 3 the pair of Alex Noyes and Jacob Christensen overcame a tight battle with the Warriors' Tony Chin and Sonam Phuntsok for a 7-6 win.

Lewis-Clark State swept the six singles matches, though, to rally for the victory. Whitman's Nishaant Limaye almost picked up a point for the Missionaries at 5-singles, taking Chin to the wall in a three-set battle won by Chin in the super-tiebreaker by a count of 18-16.

Whitman begins Northwest Conference play with its next match, a home contest against George Fox University on Saturday at 11 a.m.