WALLA WALLA, Wash.  Another year has passed, but the Northwest Conference champion for men's tennis remains the same.

The Whitman Blues rode momentum from their doubles matches into a 5-1 victory over the Lewis and Clark Pioneers Sunday on the Whitman outdoor tennis courts, claiming their 11th consecutive Northwest Conference Championship tennis crown. 

Whitman, which is ranked third in the ITA Division III West Region and 21st nationally, improved to 16-7 on the season, while Lewis & Clark dropped to 12-7 overall.

The doubles portion of the afternoon saw some exciting finishes, as two of the three contests were decided in tiebreakers.

After the Blues grabbed an early 1-0 lead when Ben Kirsh and Chase Friedman took an 8-3 victory at the 3-doubles spot, the attention turned to court one where the top pairing of Zach Hewlin and Robert Carter found themselves trailing the Pioneers' top pairing of Gordon and Brenden Barrows late in the match.

With the Barrows brothers ahead 8-7 and with service, the Blues managed to pull off a service break to force a match tiebreaker. During the tiebreak, the Whitman pair played from behind multiple times before pulling away for 7-5 win, and a 2-0 Whitman edge. 

After their heartbreaking loss, the Pioneers did manage to avoid the sweep in doubles as the Blues pairs of Trevor Fennessy and Alex Hwang fell 9-8, losing in their own tiebreaker, 8-6.  

In singles, Whitman launched all of its firepower at Lewis & Clark, and the Pios simply had no response.

The Blues did not drop a single set on the afternoon during singles play, and were paced by Hewlin, who was the first one done, taking a straight set (6-1, 6-1) victory in the No. 1 singles spot.

Gary Ho followed in Hewlin's footsteps for the Blues as Ho won in straight sets 6-1, 6-0, over Lewis & Clark's Kei Inoue, giving the Blues the 4-1 advantage -- pushing Whitman to within one point from victory.

With teammates Ben Kirsh, Daniel Foster, and Friedman each up 1-0 already in their respective matches, Robert Carter proved to be the man that would send the Blues home happy.

After winning his first set 6-2, Carter played his way to a 5-4 advantage in the second, and in his service game against Ramez Attia.

Though a 30-0 lead was squandered as Attia pulled even, Carter let go of everything he had left, including a victorious fist pump as he pulled away with the match two points later.

Able to abandon their matches and join Carter, Hewlin and Ho in the team celebration were Kirsh (6-4, 3-2 in the second), Foster (6-0, 3-0) and Friedman (6-4, 4-1) who themselves had been racing to become the fifth Whitman point of the afternoon.

Having now claimed their 11th straight conference championship, tied for the most consecutive conference tournament titles in NWC history, the Blues await the postseason as they will head to the NCAA Division III regionals at a site to be determined.