Feb. 9, 2008

Men’s Tennis Finishes 1-3 in Season-Opening Tournament

WALLA WALLA, Wash. – The Pacific Lutheran men’s tennis team finished with a 1-3 record while competing against some of the top teams in the nation at the Pacific Northwest Indoors tournament held Friday and Saturday at Whitman College.

The Lutes picked up a 6-3 victory over Linfield on Saturday morning, but finished the tournament with a 9-0 loss to NAIA nationally ranked Lewis-Clark State. The Linfield victory came on the heels of a pair of losses to highly ranked Division III foes on Friday.

The first match for the Lutes was against Northwest Conference foe Whitman College. The Missionaries are ranked 15th in the NCAA Division III national rankings. PLU’s Kevin Floyd won the number one singles match by defeating Matthew Solomon 6-4, 6-3. The only other winner in singles matches for PLU was Jared Vidano who topped Christopher Fuchs 1-6, 6-3, 10-8, at No. 5.

Whitman was able to claim two of the three doubles matches to give Whitman the edge in team scoring, 6-3. The No. 1 pair of Justin Peterson and Justin Larimore gave the Lutes their lone doubles victory, 9-8.

The second match of the day pitted the Lutes against an extremely talented UC Santa Cruz. The Banana Slugs have won six national championships are the top ranked team in nation for NCAA Division III. The Slugs swept PLU 9-0 while not dropping a set to the Lutes.

Whitman 6, PLU 3

Singles
Floyd, Kevin, PLU def. Solomon, Matthew, WTMN 6-4, 6-3
Solomon, Daniel, WTMN def. Larimore, Justin, PLU 6-4, 6-1
Bailey, Chris, WTMN def. Peterson, Justin, PLU 6-3, 3-6, 10-5
Cappel, Jake, WTMN def. Manser, Michael, PLU 6-2, 6-3
Vidano, Jared, PLU def. Fuchs, Christopher, WTMN 1-6, 6-3, 10-8
Rye, Robert, WTMN def. Sheldon, Scott, PLU 6-3, 6-2

Doubles
Larimore, Justin/Peterson, Justin, PLU def. Solomon, Daniel/Solomon Matthew, WTMN 9-8
Kassam, Nadeem/Cappel, Jake, WTMN def. Manser, Michael/Floyd, Kevin PLU 8-5
Fuchs, Christopher/Moshevich, Etienne, WTMN def. Corsetto, James/Vidano, Jared, PLU 8-2

UC Santa Cruz 9, PLU 0

Singles
Jared Kamel def. Kevin Floyd 6-4, 6-4
Max Ortiz def. Justin Larimore 6-4, 6-4
Colin Mark-Griffin def. Justin Peterson 6-4, 6-3
Max Libert-Point def. Michael Manser 6-3, 7-5
Silvio Chiba def. Jared Vidano 6-0, 7-5
Marc Vartabedian def. Scott Sheldon 6-4, 6-0

Doubles
Kamel/Vertabedian def. Larimore/Peterson 8-3
Liberty-Point/Ilya Gendelman def. Floyd/Manser 8-4
Ortiz-mack/Griffin def. James Crosetto/Vidano 8-2

PLU 6, Linfield 3

Doubles
1. Larimore/Peterson (PLU) def. Gabrielsen/Magdaong 8-5
2. Floyd/Manser (PLU) def. Ruess/Kingzett 8-5
3. Anderson/Kauffman (LIN) def. Vidano/Crosetto 9-8

Singles
1. Kevin Floyd (PLU) def. Nick Reuss 6-4, 6-1
2. Justin Larimore (PLU) def. Kyle Anderson 6-3, 6-2
3. Wesley Gabrielsen (LIN) def. Justin Peterson 5-7, 7-5, 12-10
4. Michael Manser (PLU) def. Mark Magdaong 6-2, 6-4
5. Jared Vidano (PLU) def. Brent Kingzett 6-1, 6-3
6. Tal DeWitt (LIN) def. Scott Sheldon 6-1, 6-4

Lewis-Clark State 9, PLU 0

Doubles
1. Dufour/Lee d. Larimore/Peterson 8-2
2. Kuhn/Stone d. Floyd/Manser 8-3
3. Faris/Mermut d. Vidano/Crosetto 8-3

Singles
1. Cedric Defour d. Floyd 6-4,6-2
2. Oliver Stone d. Larimore 6-3,6-2
3. Kevin Lee d. Peterson 6-2,6-1
4. Arslen Mermut d. Manser 6-0,6-2
5. Ali Faris d. Vidano 6-3,7-5
6. Michael Sopel d. Sheldon 6-3,6-0

- PLU -