PORTLAND, Ore.  Whitman College's Zach Hewlin and Robert Carter played their way to the top of the ladder Sunday at the 2017 ITA/Oracle Division III Men's Northwest Regional, winning the doubles championship over the draw's top seeds by scores of 6-1, 3-6 and 1-0 (10-7).

The victory earns the pair ITA All-American certificates along with a spot in the 2017 Small College Oracle Cup in Rome, Georgia, on October 11-15.

Both Hewlin and Carter lost their usual doubles partners to graduation, but the newness of the pairing seemed to work well from the beginning of the Regional as they opened the doubles draw with an 8-0 victory. An 8-2 win in the next round moved the third-seeded duo into the quarterfinals where they posted another 8-2 win that lifted them into the semifinals.

In the semis on Saturday they took care of the seventh seeds from Pacific (Ore.), 8-5, to secure a berth in Sunday afternoon's championship match against the top seeds, Gordon and Brenden Barrows of host Lewis & Clark College.

The Whitman tandem broke out quickly, registering several service breaks, to take the opening set, 6-1. The Barrows brothers battled back, though, to force a tie-break third set with a 6-3 win in the second.

It was Hewlin and Carter that won the race to 10 points in the tie-break, downing the Barrows' 10-7 to claim the victory and the Regional doubles title.

Hewlin is revisiting the Regional championship neighborhood after winning a singles and doubles title previously, but this is Carter's first Regional crown and ITA all-American honor.

Sunday's men's doubles title gives Whitman tennis its second doubles title in consecutive weekends as Hanna Greenberg and Andrea Gu teamed up to with the crown at the women's ITA Northwest Regional on Sept. 25 in Walla Walla, Washington.

Earlier in the day Whitman's Daniel Foster and Ben Kirsh participated in the semifinal round of the main singles draw.

Foster tangled with the player, Will Leach of George Fox University, that had unseated top-seed Hewlin in the round of 16, then downed Whitman's Adam Rapoport in the quarterfinals.

In the semis Leach made it 3-for-3 by taking a 7-5, 7-5 decision from Foster to advance into the afternoon's championship match.

In the other half of the bracket Kirsh was facing the draw's second seed in Fox's Spencer Watanabe, the 2016 Fall Northwest Regional singles champ.

Watanabe took the first set, 6-1, but Kirsh came back to square the match with a 6-3 win in the second. One service break was all it took in the deciding third, though, as Watanabe captured the match with a 6-3 win. Later in the day he would go on to win consecutive Regional singles titles by beating Leach 3 and 3 in the championship match.