WALLA WALLA, Wash.  Whitman's 21st-ranked men's tennis team raced its way into the championship match of the 2018 Northwest Conference Championship tournament with a 5-0 win Saturday over visiting Pacific (Ore.) University.

The Blues' victory was the first of two semifinal matches Saturday played on the Whitman outdoor courts.

Chase Friedman and Ben Kirsh notched the initial point of the day for Whitman (15-7) by taking an 8-3 victory in the No. 3 doubles match. Shortly thereafter the tandem of Trevor Fennessy and Alex Hwang closed out an 8-4 win at 2-doubles for a 2-0 Whitman lead.

The No. 1 doubles match was a different story as Zach Hewlin and Robert Carter battled back and forth with Rayden Murata and Oscar Wight of Pacific (9-7).

The Boxers' pair owned a 7-6 lead and was serving for the match, only to have Hewlin and Carter finish off a service break to pull even at 7-7.

The Whitman duo held serve to inch ahead, 8-7, but Murata and Wight answered with their own hold to force a seven-point (win by two) tiebreak.

The Blues jumped to the lead early, then never trailed in closing out their match, 9-8, with an 8-6 tiebreak victory.

Leading 3-0, the Blues pushed forward into singles action in search of two quick victories.

Each of Whitman's six singles players earned first-set wins, setting up a race to see who might pick up second-set wins to close out the match.

Ben Kirsh, a 6-0 first-set winner at 2-singles, struck first with another 6-0 win in the second to down Pacific's Sage Katayama and inch Whitman to the brink of the match win.

Chase Friedman, another 6-0 first-set victor, was chasing the clinching point at No. 6 by reeling off consecutive service holds and breaks in the second set, but it was Daniel Foster at No. 5 who beat him to the punch.

Foster took his first set, 6-0, from Sean Murphy then ran off six more consecutive game victories to take his match and earn the final point needed for Whitman.

That allowed Zach Hewlin at No. 1, Gary Ho at No. 3, Robert Carter at No. 4 and Friedman -- each up 1-0 in sets in their respective matches -- to abandon their bouts and begin to rest up for Sunday's 11 a.m. championship final.

The Blues -- seeking their 11th straight NWC tournament title -- will play the winner of Saturday's second semifinal between second-seeded Lewis & Clark College and third-seeded George Fox University.