What a great weekend of play for the Whitties. Not only did we defeat both UPS and PLU we did so in convincing fashing sweeping both matches 9-0! Whitman has a strong tennis tradition. This team added to that strong tradition by doing something no team in recent history as done -- sweep PLU! In talking with the PLU coaches they don't remember the last time the Lutes were swept by any conference school! Although we still haven't played up to our full potential, the PLU match was our most complete match of the season.
In doubles we started quick at #1 and #3 going up quick breaks. At #2 doubles we struggled to hold serve early in the match: fortunately for us PLU was also struggling to hold serve. At one point in #2 doubles the teams traded 4 straight breaks! The #3 team of Justin Hayashi and Jasper Follows continued their impressive play winning 8-1. Justin and Jasper have had a great year only losing one match so far this year (to UC Santa Cruz) and have defeated teams from Gonzaga and EWU. The Brothers Solomon quickly followed with a 8-4 win at #1 doubles. This was an especially gratifying win for the brothers since the PLU defeated them 9-8 a few weeks ago. At #3 Nadeem and Jake were able to get through their shaky match 8-6 giving us a 3-0 lead going into singles.
As a side note we played 3 exhibition doubles matches and swept all three.
In singles we got strong performances up and down the line-up. First off the court was Daniel "I have no nickname" Solomon with a 6-4, 6-0 at #2 singles. Daniel continues to impress and has yet to drop a set in conference play. In fact his only loss in DIII was a close #3 setter to #1 ranked UC Santa Cruz. The other Dan "I have many nicknames" Wilson sealed our match with a 6-3, 6-1 win at #5. This was a nice win for Dan since his opponent had been undefeated in conference play. We also got solid wins from Chris Bailey 6-1, 6-4 (#4 singles) and Jasper at #6 (6-2, 7-5).
The two competitive matches of the day were three set battles at #1 and #3. At #1 singles Matt Solomon saw his match go the distance as he gutted out a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 win. Besides being a gritty road win, Matt was able to defeat an opponent that beat him in straight sets a few weeks earlier.
At #3 Jake showed a lot of maturity overcoming a slow start to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. While Jake didn't play his best tennis at the beginning of the match he was tenacious and worked his way back into the match.
This weekend is a busy weekend for us as we host Lewis Clark College Saturday 1:30pm and then travel to Spokane for two matches against Whitworth (first match at 2pm).
Box Scores
Whitman 9 PLU 0
Whitman 9 UPS 0
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