WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Saturday afternoon's 9-0 Northwest Conference win over visiting University of Puget Sound earned the 19th-ranked Whitman College men's tennis team the right to host the league's postseason tournament on April 23-24. While the home group of Whitties were celebrating their win over the Loggers, another group was splitting a pair of matches in Texas against two ranked opponents. The Whitman split squad down in the Southwest opened its morning with a 5-3 victory over No. 32 University of Texas at Tyler before surrendering a 6-3 decision to host and 12th-ranked Trinity (Texas) University on its home courts in the late afternoon.

The day's results leave Whitman at 15-8 overall and 10-1 within the conference. Puget Sound drops to 1-10 and 1-10, respectively.

Luke Targett and Joey Diaz reeled off a quick 8-2 win at No. 3 doubles to open the local match against UPS. Soon after Trevor Fennessy and Nishaant Limaye polished off an 8-3 win in the second slot, leaving the task of sweeping the doubles matches to the No. 1 Whitman pairing of Jacob Christensen and Alex Noyes. The duo had to work longer than their teammates but eventually brought home the win, 9-7, over Puget Sound's Riley Inn and Nicholas Lupan by cashing out a service break for the final point.

The same six players represented Whitman in singles action and each emerged victorious, taking straight-set wins to finish the NWC host-clinching match in under three hours.

The first match of the day was actually the one against Texas-Tyler as it was forced into an early start by oncoming inclement weather.

The Whitties were able to head into singles action with a 2-1 lead after doubles victories from the pairings of Robert Carter and Jake Hoeger at No. 2 and Gary Ho and Adam Rapoport at No. 3.

Rapoport and Carter, at Nos. 5 and 6 singles, respectively, picked up the first two Whitties points in singles with Zach Hewlin at No. 1 earning the clinching point with a thrilling three-setter against UTT's Daniel Budd.

Hewlin narrowly dropped the first set, 7-6, but rallied to square the match with a 6-3 win in the second. Onrushing weather forced the duo to convert to a super-tiebreak third set -- rather than a normal full set when the team match is not yet clinched -- which was just as hotly contested as the opening sets. Hewlin finally wrested away the win, 1-0 (11-9), to secure the clinching point for Whitman.

The late-afternoon match at Trinity looked as if the momentum from the earlier match would continue into the evening. Hoeger and Carter, playing at No. 1, battled to a 9-7 win, and Chase Friedman and Petar Jivkov snared an 8-6 win at No. 3 to provide the Whitties with a 2-1 lead entering singles play. However, Jivkov would pick up the lone singles win for Whitman, taking a 7-5, 7-5 win from Trinity's Matt Tyer at No. 4.

Though the Texas group of Whitties is done for the weekend, the Walla Walla group welcomes Pacific Lutheran University to the Whitman Tennis Courts Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. for the regular season finale.