LEWISTON, Idaho - The Whitman College men's tennis team competed against a non-Division I team for the first time this spring and, in the process, welcomed its first win of 2019 in a 7-2 defeat of Lewis-Clark State College on Monday night.

The Blues won all six singles matches in route to the win. All came via sweeps aside from the No. 1 and No. 2 court competitions. Adam Rapoport topped LCSC's William Bruchard at the two 6-2, 4-6, 10-6 with Ben Kirsh having to rally from a set down to beat Alexandre D'Aboville 2-6, 6-1, 10-8 at first singles.

Despite what appeared to be a dominant win from the Blues, it required a rally after trailing by the end of doubles play. Whitman dropped doubles matches on the No. 1 and No. 2 courts but salvaged doubles play with a win at the three. The Blues team of Rapoport and Rajul Chikkalingaiah topped the Warrior pair of Marcus Gavelin and Tomas Venere, 8-1 to make it a 2-1 score heading to singles play.

Whitman came through in singles action with the clean sweep of the six matches.

Before the Blues begin Northwest Conference play next month, they will travel to Cleveland, Ohio to compete in the ITA National Indoor Championship. The event runs from Feb. 22-24 and is hosted by Case Western Reserve University at the Cleveland Racquet Club.