News Release Date:
Friday, March 6
WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- It was anything but easy, but the Whitman College men's tennis team got past Linfield College 5-4 to post its 40th consecutive Northwest Conference regular season victory Friday afternoon in the Bratton Tennis Center.
Whitman, improving to 6-0 in the NWC and 7-2 overall, won two of three matches in doubles to take the early lead.
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Dan Wilson
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After Etienne Moshevich and Chris Bailey at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles rolled to straight-set victories for a 4-1 Whitman lead, Linfield's Ward Van Mens, a freshman from The Netherlands, celebrated his 19th birthday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory at No. 3 singles.
Dan Wilson then tallied the clinching fifth team point for Whitman in a back-and-forth slugfest at No. 4 singles, beating Linfield's Walt James 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.
With Whitman up 5-2 in the team scoring, Linfield's Mark Magdaong and Tal DeWitt rallied for three-set victories at No. 5 and No. 6 singles to tighten the final score.
Winners for Whitman in doubles were Moshevich and Jake Cappel at No. 2 and Wilson and Justin Hayashi at No. 3. At No. 1 doubles, James teamed with Brent Kingzett to give Linfield an 8-6 victory over Christoph Fuchs and Quin Miller.
The loss left Linfield with records of 6-1 in the NWC and 6-2 overall. The Wildcats travel to Spokane on Saturday to play an 11 a.m. match against Whitworth University.
Whitman, ranked No. 19 nationally in NCAA Div. III, is off until next Friday and Saturday, when it hosts Lewis & Clark College and Willamette University.
Whitman 5, Linfield 4: Match Scores
Coach Jeff Northam comments . . . Ugly win for the Whitties
Ick! I feel like I just kissed my sister (no offense Patsy)! Last night we managed to pull off a 5-4 victory over
Linfield but it left us with a bad taste. We had a golden opportunity to put our stamp on the conference. A good win over
Linfield
would not only places us atop the conference standings but could give
us momentum heading into a long two-week spring break trip.
In
doubles we started very strong at #2 and #3. At #2 ET and Jake broke
early and never looked back for a quick 8-1 victory. At #3 Justin and
Dan jumped on a good Linfield
team closing out the match 8-3. At #1 Quin and Christoph always seemed
on the defensive. Christoph and Quin possess two of the best serves on
the team. For some reason last night they really struggled with their
serves: in fact, I'm pretty sure their 1st serve percentage was under
30% for the match. To their credit they kept digging themselves out of
holes and broke Linfield at 5-7 putting the match back on serve. However Linfield was able to break to finish out the match 8-6.
In
singles we started with #1 ET, #2 Chris, #3 Jake and #4 Dan (we have four
indoor courts). Early in the match things we were on cruise control and
we were steaming ahead. In all four matches we broke early and had command
of all the matches. Someplace along the line our cruise control broke
down and we started struggling. Jake was up 3-0 in the 1st and then
went down 4-6, 0-5. Dan won the first but quickly when down 0-4 in the 2nd. While Jake and Dan were struggling, ET and Chris were able to put the hammer down, both winning in straight sets.
With
ET and Chris's victory we were able to take a 4-1 lead. Jake mounted a
mini-rally at 0-5 but ended up dropping his match 4-6, 2-4. Match score
now 4-2 with Dan starting his 3rd set and #5 (Quin) and #6 (Christoph)
taking the courts. With Dan locked in a major battle, both Quin and
Christoph won their 1st sets 6-1. At this point the team match looked
like a lock since we only need to win one more set to clinch the team
match. Dan ended up breaking serve at 4-4 and managed to serve out the
match despite the Linfield
opponent fighting off three match points. We now have the team match in
hand 5-2 and up a set and a break at #5 and #6. However, once Dan
clinched the team match the air went out of our sails and we ended up
dropping 5 and 6 in 3rd set match tiebreaks.
Hats
off to a very tough and competitive Linfield team. They came into our
place and battled tooth and nail the entire match. As I told the team
in our pre-match meeting, I look forward to playing Linfield because
they are always fired up and will keep coming after you no matter the
score. Coach Swanson does a great job getting his players ready to play.
Even
though we ended up with a 5-4 victory we all felt horrible about the
way the match played out. We had a very long, and incredibly positive,
team meeting after the match. Hopefully this experience help our team
develop as we head into spring break.
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CONTACT: Dave Holden
Sports Information Director
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash.
holden@whitman.edu; (509) 527-5902
