April 27, 2007

PLU Doubles Team Reaches Ojai Tournament Quarterfinals

OJAI, Calif. – David Miller and Justin Larimore, Pacific Lutheran’s top doubles team and the No. 8 seed, advanced to Saturday's quarterfinal round of the Ojai Tournament with a pair of wins on Friday.

Miller and Larimore defeated Cal Lutheran's Jordan Culpepper and Paul Wetterholm, 8-3, in the opening round, then knocked off UC Santa Cruz's Jared Kamel and Marc Vertabedian, 8-4, in the round of 16.

The Lute duo will play unseeded Eric Chow and David Oehm of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, at 3 p.m., with the winner advancing to a semifinal match at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Chow and Oehm whipped No. 3 seed Jeff Jablonski and Neil Patel of Pomona-Pitzer, 8-1, in the round of 16.

Pacific Lutheran's other doubles team, Jeff Loranger and Justin Peterson, won their first match before being eliminated in the round of 16. The PLU pair topped UC Santa Cruz's Colin Mark-Griffin and Julian Sumn, 9-7, before losing to No. 1 seed Guillaume Schils and Lawrence Wang of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 8-5.

In Ojai Tournament singles action, a pair of PLU freshmen advanced to the second round before losing. Kevin Floyd, who plays No. 2 for the Lutes, beat Patel, 6-3, 7-5 in the opening round. He then lost to Chow, a co-No. 9 seed, 6-2, 6-1. Peterson, who plays No. 5 singles, beat Forrest Hunt of Cal Lutheran, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2 in the first round before falling to No. 3 seed William Ellison of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 6-3, 6-2.

Two other Lutes lost their first round matches. Loranger, who play No. 3 singles for PLU, lost by a 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 score to Ian Bradburn of Redlands. Larimore, who plays No. 4 singles, dropped a 6-4, 6-1 decision to co-No. 9 seed Jeff Fong of UC Santa Cruz.

- PLU -