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April 19, 2008 Whitman Leaves No Doubt in Title Win over
Lutes YAKIMA, Wash. – A year ago, Whitman entered the Northwest Conference men's tennis tournament with an unblemished conference record, and then dropped the title match to Pacific Lutheran, 6-3. The scenario was the same this year as the Missionaries came into the NWC tournament with the No. 1 seed based on a 16-0 conference record. This time, however, they left no doubt as to their supremacy in the Northwest Conference, whipping Pacific Lutheran, 8-1, in the tournament championship match held Saturday afternoon at Yakima Tennis Club. The conference title was Whitman’s first since 2004 and ended a string of three straight NWC crowns for the Lutes. Whitman had defeated the Lutes twice this season, 6-3 in early February and 9-0 in early March. Today’s NWC title match was more of the same as the Missionaries took two of three doubles matches before blitzing the Lutes in a convincing singles sweep. Brothers Daniel and Matt Solomon defeated PLU’s Justin Larimore and Kevin Floyd, 8-2, at No. 1 doubles, and Jasper Follows and Justin Hayashi beat Scott Sheldon and James Crosetto, 8-2, at No. 3 doubles. The Lutes salvaged a doubles point at No. 2 where Justin Peterson and Michael Manser knocked off Nadeem Kassam and Jake Cappel, 8-5. That was to be the only points that PLU would muster, however, as Whitman cruised in singles. The Solomon brothers were tough at the top with Matt beating Floyd, 7-5, 6-4, at No. 1 and Daniel topping Larimore, 6-2, 6-4, at No. 2. Whitman also had straight-set wins from Chris Bailey at No. 3 (6-1, 6-2 over Peterson), from Cappel at No. 4 (6-2, 7-5 over Manser), and from Dan Wilson at No. 5 (6-2, 6-1 over Tory Silvestrin). Hayashi was pushed to a third set before defeating Sheldon, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, at No. 6 singles. Linfield defeated Willamette, 6-3, in the third and fourth place match held early this morning, and Whitworth knocked off Puget Sound, 6-3, in the fifth and sixth place contest held on Friday night. - PLU -
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