Men's Tennis | 3/6/2016 5:16:00 PM

WALLA WALLA, Wash. – In a battle of nationally-ranked opposite coast Division III men's tennis teams Sunday afternoon 18th-ranked Whitman College got the better of Philadelphia's No. 30 Swarthmore College, 7-2, in the final match of the 2016 Whitman Invite. A sweep of the doubles matches followed by straight-set wins from Robert Carter than Adam Rapoport clinched the match for the Missionaries who were playing on their home courts.

Whitman won both of its matches during the Invite to lift its record to 6-3, while Sunday's loss ruined the Garnet's (3-2) chance at an unblemished weekend after they had won both of their Saturday matches.

The sweep in doubles Sunday was a powerful opening for Whitman, initiated by an 8-1 win at No. 2 from Jake Hoeger and Petar Jivkov. The pairing of Robert Carter and Adam Rapoport at 3-doubles earned the second point with an 8-4 win over Swarthmore's John Larkin and Thomas Vernier, and the sweep was complete when Zach Hewlin and Phillip Locklear worked for an 8-5 win at No. 1 over the Garnet's top tandem of Mark Fallati and Josh Powell.

Carter's 6-5, 7-5 win over Blake Oetting at 5-singles inched Whitman closer to the match victory, which was secured with Rapoport's 6-4, 6-4 triumph over Powell minutes later at No. 6. Chase Friedman notched Whitman's sixth consecutive point of the match by winning in a third-set tiebreaker at No. 3, coming back from an opening-set loss to earn a win over Swarthmore's Ari Cepelewicz.

The Garnet picked up a three-set win at No. 2 then a straight-set victory at No. 4 before the Whitties' Zach Hewlin halted Swarthmore's string.

Fallati had rolled to a 6-1 win over Hewlin in the first set of the 1-singles match but the Whitman All-American bounced back for a 6-3 win in the second then slammed the door on the day with a 6-4 win in the deciding third.

The win over Swarthmore comes after Saturday night's 9-0 romp over the Kingsmen of Cal Lutheran University. Earlier Sunday Cal Lutheran suffered another defeat, this time at the hands of Lewis & Clark College by a score of 9-0.

Whitman jumps back into the fray Saturday welcoming Northwest Conference foe Willamette University to Walla Walla for a morning match before finishing off the day in a non-conference duel against Spokane Community College. The weekend concludes Sunday with a visit from Linfield College in another league match.