WALLA WALLA, Wash.  A full day of out-of-division competition ended with a win Saturday evening for Whitman's men's tennis team (1-2) as the host Blues downed visiting Lewis-Clark State College, 7-0, at the Bratton Indoor Tennis Center.

The day began in the morning at NCAA Division I Boise State (1-0), where D-III Whitman picked up a doubles win at No. 1 but dropped the other two doubles matches before falling to the Broncos, 7-0, in the first match of the spring season for the Blues. All-American Zach Hewlin teamed up with Petar Jivkov at No. 1 to forge a 6-4 victory over Boise's Jack Heslin and Brian Tran.

Daniel Foster and Adam Rapoport nearly clinched the doubles point for Whitman at No. 3, but BSU's Pedro Platzeck and Greg Wischer were able to scratch out a 7-6 (5) tie-break victory.

Back at home in Bratton the split Whitman squad squared off with D-I University of Idaho in the early afternoon. The Vandals (1-0) rolled through the doubles matches to earn the team point, but Whitman's singles players proved to be a stiffer test.

Though Idaho swept the six matches, two went all the way to three sets. Rajul Chikkalingaiah took Idaho's Lucas Coutinho into the tie-breaking third set after taking the second set, 7-5. Coutinho finally worked his way past the scrappy Whitman newcomer to take the tie break, 10-4, at No. 5. At 1-singles Robert Carter opened with a 6-4 win over the Vandals' Carlos Longhi Neto but finally succumbed 0 and 1 in the second and third sets. 

Reunited for the evening match against the NAIA's Lewis-Clark State (0-1), the Blues were able to close the day with an unblemished evening, winning all three doubles matches for that team point, then sweeping through the six singles matches to record the true shutout.

Hewlin, Gary Ho and Carter swept Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, in straight sets for the Blues, as did Alex Hwang and Jake Hoeger at Nos. 5 and 6.

Trevor Fennessy had the battle of the day in Bratton, rebounding from an opening-set loss to L-C State's Anthony Croteau to take the next two sets, 1 and 3, to maintain the unblemished scoresheet.

Whitman, ranked 24th in the final Oracle/Intercollegiate Tennis Association men's D-III ranking of the fall, next hits the courts on Feb. 3-4 when it takes on No. 20 Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.) College and No. 9 Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on successive days.