NWC Tennis Championships: Tournament Recap
Linfield, PLU Claim Repeat Titles At NWC Tennis Championships
YAKIMA,
Wash. – Linfield claimed an unprecedented sixth
straight women’s title, while Pacific Lutheran
won its third straight men’s crown at the 2007
Northwest Conference Tennis Championships, held
Saturday at the Yakima Tennis Club.
The Wildcats became the first NWC school to win six straight women’s tennis titles, posting an easy 7-2 victory over Puget Sound. Linfield claimed five of six singles matches, led by a three-set win by Becca Johnson at the No. 1 flight, in addition to winning two of three doubles flights. Megan Rodgers, Kelli Sides, Sallie Katter and Molly Nelson also claimed singles victories.
Pacific
Lutheran and Whitman matched up in the men’s final
for the four straight year and the Lutes stunned
a Whitman team that had not lost a conference
match all season. After PLU claimed two of three
doubles matches, the fate of either team hinged
on a pair of closely contested matched at the
No. 1 and No. 3 singles flights.
After losing the first set, David Miller was able to roar back against Whitman’s Phalkun Mam to edged out a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory. Next door, PLU’s Jeff Loranger managed the same type of rally to capture the No. 3 flight over Robbie Munday, winning 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Justin Larimore and Justin Peterson also win singles matches for the Lutes.
Along with winning the conference championship, both teams earned the league’s automatic qualifier for the NCAA Division III West Regional Championships, The regional tournament will be held May 4-6 at site yet to be determined.
In the men’s third place match, No. 4 Linfield took four singles victories to post a 5-4 over fifth seeded Willamette. The Bearcats led 2-1 after the doubles and saw Donovan LeDoux and Eric MacMillan take the top two singles matches, both in three sets. The Wildcats found strength in the bottom of the lineup, claiming the No. 3 through No. 6 matches to take the match.
Whitman, meanwhile, took two of three doubles matches and used wins from the No. 3, 4 and 5 singles flights to take a 5-4 decision from Pacific Lutheran in the women’s third place match. The Missionaries claimed victories from Hadley DeBree and Divneet Kaur in the No. 2 doubles and Maura Flaherty and Katie Oost at No. 3 doubles. Margo Lentz, Oost and Flaherty were Whitman’s singles winners.
Likewise, Whitworth used a split of the singles matches to take a 5-4 decision from Willamette in the women’s fifth place match. The Pirates earned doubles victories from their No. 2 and No. 3 flights and then saw the bottom of the singles lineup come alive with victories from Betsy Johnson, Taryn Smith and Justine Hays. The three allowed a total of nine games to their opponents.
First Day Summary
YAKIMA, Wash. - Holding true to their final standings at the end of the Northwest Conference regular season, the top two seeds in both the men's and women's brackets will play for the titles at the 2007 NWC Tennis Championships at the Yakima Tennis Club.
Whitman and Pacific Lutheran will play for the men's championship for the third consecutive year on Saturday. The women's title will match Linfield and Puget Sound. Both championship matches will start at 12 noon.
Willamette and Linfield will play in the men's third place match. On the women's bracket, Willamette and Whitworth will vie for fifth place while Whitman and Pacific Lutheran square off in the third place match. All three matches will begin at 8:00 a.m.
On the men's side, the top seeded Missionaries and the No. 2 Lutes will play for the championship in what has become a familiar postseason matchup. The two teams have met in the title match the last two seasons. The Lutes took last year's title by a 5-2 final and the 2005 championship by a 4-3 margin. Whitman took both matches during the regular season.
Both teams made it easy on themselves in their lone matches of the day. Whitman posted a 9-0 victory over No. 5 Willamette in the second round match. The Missionaries allowed just 11 points in the singles outside of the No. 2 flight, where Steven Ly needed a tiebreaker to knock off Eric MacMillan 6-7, 6-4 (13-11).
The Lutes posted an 8-1 victory over No. 3 seed Linfield to advance to the final. The Wildcats challenged in the doubles, however, forcing an extra game in the second and third flights. Puget Sound, meanwhile, became victim of a pair of upsets, dropping a 5-4 match to Willamette before sixth seed Whitworth posted a 5-4 victory over the Loggers to claim fifth place. The fifth place match last over five hours with No. 5 seed Current Scott winning it for the Pirates in a three-set thriller.
Linfield's women took a big step towards winning their sixth consecutive conference championship, claiming an 8-1 victory over Pacific Lutheran. The Wildcats received dominant matches from Becca Johnson at No. 1 singles and Megan Rodgers at No. 2 singles. Bria Smith broke up the clean, winning the No. 4 singles match for the Lutes over Sallie Katter.
Puget Sound earned their spot in the final with a 7-2 victory over Whitman. The Loggers had to fight off a number of hard challenges by the Missionaries, who won the No. 1 and No.3 singles flights. Alyssa Sidoff and Katie Russell were winners in a pair of three-set showdowns at No. 2 and No. 4 singles, respectively.
The Loggers finish third last year, losing in the second round to eventual second place Pacific Lutheran. Linfield claimed both regular season meetings by scores of 7-2 and 5-4.