LEWISTON, Idaho  Whitman's 23rd-ranked men's tennis team split up and headed in opposite directions for Saturday's matches, finishing the day with wins over Pacific Lutheran University, 7-2, and Lewis-Clark State, 6-1, but dropping a 5-2 decision to University of Idaho.

The group that headed west took on host PLU in a Northwest Conference match at the Lutes' Sprinker Tennis Center.

Jack Freer and Nishaant Limaye at 2-doubles and Jack Fleming and Bear Lee at 3-doubles pushed the Blues in front, 2-1, heading into singles action.

Andreas Mueller-Immergluck, Eric Lim, Limaye, Freer and Luke Targett each won out at Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 to finish off the victory.

Mueller-Immergluck, Lim, Freer and Targett were straight-set victors, while Limaye won the first and third sets of his match at 4-singles.

The eastbound group traveled to L-C State where they would first take on Division I Idaho.

Playing the D-I format in both matches in Lewiston -- the three doubles matches count as one point -- Whitman nearly captured that point against the Vandals.

Idaho's No. 2 pairing won out but the No. 3 team had their hands full with Whitman's Ben Kirsh and Daniel Foster. In the end, though, the Vandals' Felipe Fonseca and Guilherme Scarpelli outlasted Kirsh and Foster, 6-4.

At No. 1, Zach Hewlin and Robert Carter took down Idaho's top pairing, 7-6(2), though the doubles point had already been decided.

Hewlin and Tom Chang earned victories during singles action for Whitman, while Kirsh went three sets before dropping his singles bout.

Hewlin, at No. 1, fell behind Carlos Longhi Neto who won the opening set by a count of 6-3. But Hewlin rallied back for a 7-5 win in the second, and then pounded out a quick 6-2 win in the third to take the point.

Chang, too, dropped his opening set but also rallied in the second, winning 6-4 over Lucas Coutinho to even things up. With the team decision already in the books for the Vandals, Chang and Coutinho finished off their match at No. 6 with a third-set super-tiebreaker, won by Change, 10-6, to add another point for the Blues.

In the late match in Lewiston, the NAIA's L-C State opened with a doubles win at No. 2 but Kirsh and Friedman squared the decision with a 6-3 win at No. 3, and the Blues took the doubles point minutes later with a 6-3 win at No. 1 by Hewlin and Carter.

Hewlin opened singles action by rolling to a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 1, allowing Whitman to inch in front 2-0 in the match, played under the NCAA D-I rules.

The Warriors earned a point back with a win at 3-singles, but Kirsh's 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 2 and Friedman's 4 and 1 victory at No. 5 picked up the third and the clinching fourth point.

For good measure, foster rallied from a first-set loss to win the next two sets at No. 4, and Chang added a straight-set victory at No. 6 to complete the long afternoon.

The west-traveling group stays on the road for a Sunday NWC outing at University of Puget Sound.