SPOKANE, Wash. The 14th-ranked men's tennis team from Whitman split its squad Saturday in a trip to the northeast corner of the state, with squad 'yellow' taking on host Whitworth University in a Northwest Conference match while squad 'blue' headed to Gonzaga University to square off against the Division I Bulldogs.

Team yellow rolled to an 8-1 victory over the Pirates at their Scotford Tennis Center, but team blue was tripped up, 7-0, by Gonzaga at The Stevens Center.

Playing the D-I format (doubles matches count for one point) at Gonzaga it was the D-III Blues who nearly initiated the beginning of an upset.

The Bulldogs snared the 2-doubles match, but the ITA All-American doubles tandem of Zach Hewlin and Robert Carter broke out to a quick 3-1 lead at No. 1 over the Zags' Kyle Everly and Vincent Rettke. Hewlin and Carter were relentless in the following games as they pounded out a 6-2 win that meant the 3-doubles match would decide the doubles point.

Daniel Foster and Chase Friedman inched out to a 4-2 lead in that match, but the Gonzaga tandem of Hunter Egger and Simon Homedes Dualde pulled even with consecutive game victories.

On serve, beginning with the Whitman duo, each pair would hold serve over the next four games, pushing the match to 6-6 and into a match tiebreaker.

A four-point run from the Zags erased a 1-0 deficit and Egger and Homedes Dualde would eventually prevail with a 7-3 tiebreak win to capture the match, 7-6, and the doubles point for the home team.

Gonzaga would sweep the six singles bouts to finish off the match, but Hewlin, Carter and Gary Ho would pose significant challenges for their opponents.

Ho won the opening set at No. 5 but the Zags' Everly rebounded in the second, then outlasted Ho, 10-8, in the superset tiebreak to steal the match.

Both Carter and Hewlin dropped their opening sets before bouncing back in their second sets.

Carter eventually lost a 7-6 decision in the second to falter against Matthew Perkins, while Hewlin valiantly tried to rebound from a 5-1 deficit in the second with consecutive game wins before he, too, succumbed, falling to Feit, 4 and 3.

At Whitworth (0-1, 0-1 NWC), the Blues (1-1, 1-0 NWC) won the Nos. 1 and 3 doubles matches to claim the doubles point, then swept the singles matches for their 7-0 victory over the Pirates.

Playing the D-I format as well, the yellow squad picked up a 6-4 win from Rajul Chikkalingaiah and Adam Rapoport at 1-doubles to clinch the point after the pairing of Alex Hwang and Luke Targett won earlier, 6-2, at 3-doubles.

Whitman rolled through its six singles matches, taking five of the six in straight sets.

Hwang at No. 3 won first, followed by Rapoport at No. 1. The clinching point in the team match came from Chikkalingaiah at 2-singles, where he defeated Jake Bethards 3 and 3.

The Whitman squad will pull together for their next match, a non-conference trip to Boise State for a 6 p.m. match Saturday.