April 21, 2007

PLU claims Third Straight NWC Men’s Tennis Championship

Jared Vidano

Kevin Floyd

YAKIMA, Wash. – Pacific Lutheran upset favored Whitman, 6-3, to win its third straight men’s title at the 2007 Northwest Conference Tennis Championships held Saturday at the Yakima Tennis Club.

Pacific Lutheran has now won 28 of the past 36 Northwest Conference men’s tennis titles and placed second in the other eight.

Pacific Lutheran, the tournament's No. 2 seed, and Whitman, the No. 1 seed, matched up in the men’s final for the fourth straight year. The Lutes stunned a Whitman team that had not lost a conference match, including 7-2 and 5-4 regular season victories over the Lutes.

The Lutes, who finished the regular season conference schedule with a 14-2 record, built strong momentum with a convincing 8-1 semifinal victory over Linfield on Friday afternoon. “We had a great day today,” Craig Hamilton, PLU co-head coach said after the title match. “We played our two best matches of the year in the last two days.”

The Lutes won two of the three doubles matches to get off to a solid start. David Miller and Justin Larimore showed that they were up to the task against the highly regarded Whitman duo of Phalkun Mam and Steven Ly by garnering an 8-6 victory at the No. 1 slot. Whitman’s Robbie Munday and Christoph Fuchs beat Justin Peterson and Jeff Loranger, 9-7, in a tightly contested No. 2 doubles match. The Lutes picked up the swing doubles point with a stunning win from Jared Vidano and Kevin Floyd, who beat Matt Solomon and Nadeem Kassam, 8-5. The Whitman pair had shown its ability way back in the fall with a doubles championship in the ITA regional tournament.

The fate of both teams hinged on a pair of closely contested matches at the No. 1 and No. 3 singles flights. After losing the first set, Miller battled back against Mam to take a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory at No. 1 singles. On the next court, Loranger managed the same type of rally to capture the No. 3 flight over Munday, winning 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Larimore beat Solomon 6-3, 7-5 at No. 4, and Peterson topped Fuchs 6-1, 6-2 at No. 5, for the other PLU singles wins.

As a result of winning the conference championship the Lutes, 16-9 overall this season, earn the league’s automatic qualifying berth in the NCAA Division III West Regional Championships. The regional tournament will be held May 4-6 at site yet to be determined.

No. 2 Pacific Lutheran 6, No. 1 Whitman 3

SINGLES
1. David Miller (PLU) def. Phalkun Mam (WTMN), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3
2. Steven Ly (WTMN) def. Kevin Floyd (PLU), 6-2, 6-2
3. Jeff Loranger (PLU) def. Robbie Munday (WTMN), 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
4. Justin Larimore (PLU) def. Matt Solomon (WTMN), 6-3, 7-5
5. Justin Peterson (PLU) def. Christoph Fulks (WTMN), 6-1, 6-2
6. Jake Cappell (WTMN) def. Jared Vidano (PLU), 6-2, 6-3

DOUBLES
1. Miller/Larimore (PLU) def. Mam/Ly (WTMN), 8-6
2. Munday/Fuchs (WTMN) def. Peterson/Loranger (PLU), 9-7
3. Floyd/Vidano (PLU) def. Solomon/Nadeem Kassam (WTMN), 8-5

- PLU -