SALEM, Ore. – Whitman College extended its season-opening win streak within the Northwest Conference Saturday afternoon, blanking host Willamette University, 9-0, in a men's tennis match at the WU Tennis Courts. The Missionaries entered the day with a split squad as a second group traveled farther north to square off with NCAA Division I Seattle University which rallied in singles to steal a 4-3 win from the visiting D-III Whitties.

Saturday's results leave Whitman at 3-3 overall and 3-0 within the league. Willamette slips to 1-2 and 1-1, respectively, and Seattle lifts its record to 4-10.

From the outset at Willamette the ball was bouncing Whitman's way. Adam Rapoport and Gary Ho teamed up to roll past the Bearcats' Aaron Schecter and Sam Wexman, taking the point at 1-doubles by an 8-3 score. Jacob Christiensen and Joey Diaz paired up for an even more impressive 8-1 win at No. 3, and the tandem of Alex Noyes and Luke Targett made it a clean sweep with a victory at No. 2.

Rapoport, Ho and Christiensen each added points in singles matches at Nos. 1, 2 and 5, respectively. The other wins came from Nishaant Limaye at No. 3, Trevor Fennessy at No. 4 and Azur Ali at No. 6. Fennessy faced the largest challenge of the day after dropping his first set to Willamette's Colin Yamaguchi. But Fennessy evened the score with a commanding 6-2 win in the second then closed out the final team point by winning the third set super-tiebreaker, 1-0 (10-6).

The early-evening match pitted the Missionaries against the Western Athletic Conference's Redhawks at SandPoint Tennis Courts.

Playing under the home team's D-I scoring rules Whitman earned the doubles point by taking wins at Nos. 1 and 3. Chase Friedman and Petar Jivkov added the initial win of the afternoon at SandPoint, routing Seattle's Jeremiah Kalmus and Brian Nguyen, 8-1, at the No. 3 spot. After the Redhawks had pulled even with a victory at 2-doubles the Whitman duo of Zach Hewlin and Phillip Locklear gutted out a 7-6 (7-5) 1-doubles win to lift their Whitman teammates to a 1-0 lead on the match scoreboard.

A win at 3-singles by Friedman added the second point for Whitman but Seattle would rally for the team victory by taking the next four matches to finish. Jivkov added the final point for Whitman, coming back from a tie-break loss in the opening set with 6-3, 6-2 wins in the next sets to down the Redhawks' Matt Alderson.

The weekend continues Sunday for the squad that defeated Willamette as that group moves on to Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, where the Missionaries and Wildcats will face off in a 10 a.m. conference match.