Whitman tops Boxers, win 11th straight NWC title
Results
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Defending Northwest Conference men's tennis champion Whitman did it again, for the 11th consecutive time.
The regular season champs also won the NWC tournament title with a 5-1 win over No 2 seed Pacific on Sunday at the Whitman Tennis Courts. Ranked No. 5 in the NCAA Division III west region and 19th nationally, Whitman improved to 18-8 on the year. Pacific dropped to 18-4, with two of their four losses coming at the hands of today's victor.
Whitman won two of the three doubles matches, both by the closest of margins.
Clark Wininger and
Brennan Faith came up just short in a tie-breaker on court No. 1 (9-8) against Robert Carter and Jake Hoeger. On court three,
Josh Bernstein and
Reuben Mulhern suffered a similar heartbreaking fate, 9-7.
At No. 2,
Oscar Wight and
Chris Dalton kept the Boxers alive with an 8-3 win over Zach Newlin and Phillip Locklear, 8-3, sending the dual match to singles play with Whitman on top, 2-1.
But Whitman quickly took control on the singles courts. Adam Rapoport recorded the first singles win for the hosts, taking out Bernstein on court six (6-2, 6-3), followed by Petar Jivkov's win at No. 5 over Dalton, 6-2, 6-2, making the team score 4-1 Whitman.
The clincher was supplied by No. 4 regionally ranked Newlin's win over Faith at No. 1 (6-1, 6-2), providing for the final score of 5-1. The rest of the matches were suspended at that point.
The Boxers won Saturday's semi-finals over Lewis & Clark, thus finishing second in the NWC in the regular season and in the conference tournament for the third season in a row.
