April 10, 2008

MEN’S TENNIS: Floyd Named Conference Player of the Week

THIS WEEKEND: Pacific Lutheran hosts Linfield, Friday, 2 p.m.; PLU hosts George Fox, Saturday, 10 a.m.; PLU hosts Green River CC (exhibition), Saturday, 2 p.m. All of the matches are scheduled to be played at the PLU tennis courts, but inclement weather could mean changes in both time and venue. Updates will be posted to the PLU athletics web site on the schedule pages.

FLOYD EARNS CONFERENCE HONOR: Kevin Floyd, the sophomore out of Grandview and Sunnyside Christian High School, earned Northwest Conference Player of the Week honors for his performance in two matches last week. Floyd rolled over opponents from Puget Sound and Whitworth at No. 1 singles, and he and partner Justin Larimore did the same in a pair of No. 1 doubles contests. Floyd is the first PLU male tennis player to earn the conference award this season.

REGULAR SEASON WRAPUP: Pacific Lutheran puts a close on the 2008 regular season this coming weekend when it hosts Linfield and George Fox in Northwest Conference matches. In addition, the Lutes will play Green River CC in an exhibition match. The number two and number three teams in the conference standings will battle it out at 2 p.m. Friday when Linfield comes to Parkland to meet the Lutes. The Wildcats are in third place in the conference with a 10-4 record while the Lutes are second with a 12-2 mark. The teams met on Feb. 9 during the opening week of the season at the Pacific Northwest Indoors tournament in Walla Walla, and the Lutes picked up a 6-3 victory. In George Fox, the Lutes will play a team that sits in eighth place in the nine-team conference. Playing with only two of their top six players at the time, PLU defeated the Bruins, 6-3, on Feb. 22 in Oregon.

CONFERENCE NOTES: Pacific Lutheran will serve as host for the Northwest Conference Championships scheduled for April 18-19 at the Yakima Tennis Club in Yakima. A total of six of the conference’s nine teams will qualify for the tournament and that list of six has already been figured out. Whitman is unbeaten in 15 conference matches and will go into the tournament as the No. 1 seed, while PLU needs to win one of its final two matches this weekend to go in as the No. 2 seed. Both of the top seeds get first-round byes. Linfield is currently third and Whitworth is fourth, followed by Willamette and Puget Sound. Pacific Lutheran has won three straight Northwest Conference men's championships, including last year when the Lutes turned the tables on Whitman, beating the Missionaries after losing to them twice during the regular season.

LAST WEEK: The Lutes picked up a pair of 8-1 victories in matches against Puget Sound and Whitworth last week. Against Puget Sound, the Lutes won all three doubles matches and five of the six singles contests. In singles play, Kevin Floyd, Justin Larimore, Justin Peterson and Michael Manser all had easy straight-set victories in the one through four slots, and Scott Sheldon won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6. On Saturday at the Scotford Tennis Center in Spokane, PLU beat the host Pirates, 8-1. The match looked like it might turn into a closely contested affair based on the doubles results. After PLU's Kevin Floyd and Justin Larimore beat Whitworth's Ed Anegon and Brian Elliot, 8-2, at No. 1 doubles, the Pirates' Joe Wales and Scott Donnell pulled out an 8-5 win at No. 2 over Michael Manser and Justin Peterson. The Lutes took No. 3 when Scott Sheldon and James Crosetto earned a hard-fought 8-5 win over Henry Williams and Josh Steele. PLU took control of the match with a sweep of the top three singles matches. Floyd beat Steele, 6-1, 6-2 at No. 1, Larimore defeated Elliot, 7-6, 6-4 at No. 2 and Peterson topped Anegon, 6-3, 6-1 at No. 3. The bottom half of the ladder all went three sets, but PLU earned the victory in each. Tory Silvestrin edged Donnell, 5-7, 6-2, 1-0 (10-8) at No. 4, Sheldon nipped Wales 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8) at No. 5 and Crosetto topped Williams 6-1, 2-6, 1-0 (10-4) at No. 6.

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