News Release Date:
Tuesday, March 10

WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- The Whitman College women's tennis team completed a home-and-away season sweep of George Fox with an 8-1 Northwest Conference victory Tuesday afternoon in the Bratton Tennis Center.

Margo Lentz

Whitman, now 7-2 in the NWC (7-3 overall), set the tone with a somewhat unlikely sweep of the opening matches in doubles.

Margo Lentz and Emily Rolston, two players from Missoula, Mont., had no trouble at No. 1 doubles, winning 8-0, and Katie Oost and Amanda Alexander took charge en route to an 8-5 triumph at No. 2 doubles. But the story was entirely different at No. 3 doubles.

The George Fox duo of Shanna Lesire and Liliya Abildayev raced to early leads at 3-0 and 6-1, but Whitman's Alex Robinson and Jacquie Frank bounced back to win seven straight games for an 8-7 lead. After Lesire and Abildayev broke serve to even the count at 8-8, Frank and Robinson took the match tie-breaker 7-4, winning four of the last five points.

Once singles started, Whitman wasted little time clinching the team victory. Shortly after Lentz won 6-2, 6-0 at No. 3 singles, Oost made it 5-0 Whitman with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 2.

Katie Oost

The next match to finish came at No. 1, where Whitman's Hadley DeBree got past Courtney Banks 6-0, 6-4. Banks led 4-1 in the second set before DeBree won five straight games to finish her win.

Rolston streteched Whitman's lead to 7-0 with a 6-2, 6-3 victory at No. 4 singles. The two sides then split the final two matches in singles to account for the final team score.

Betsy Ann Penman got the win for George Fox at No. 5, rallying past Robinson 2-6, 6-3, 10-7. Frank was a winner for Whitman at No. 6, where she downed Abildayev 7-6 (10-8), 6-0.  

George Fox, which also lost by an 8-1 to Whitman last month in Newberg, Ore., saw its record fall to 2-7 in the NWC and 2-8 overall.

Whitman continues NWC play later this week with three road matches. It plays at Lewis & Clark Friday afternoon and then battles both Pacific and Willamette on Saturday.

George Fox hosts Pacific Lutheran Saturday before traveling to Pacific on Sunday.

Whitman 8, George Fox 1: Match Scores

- 30 - 

CONTACT: Dave Holden
Sports Information Director
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash.
holden@whitman.edu; (509) 527-5902