WOMEN’S TENNIS: Lutes Head East for Key Conference Matches

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran at Whitman, Friday, 4 p.m.; PLU at Whitworth, Saturday, 11 a.m.

SMITH IS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Bria Smith was all over the place last week, at least as far as where she played in the Pacific Lutheran singles lineup. Wherever she played, however, she won handily, and that earned her the Northwest Conference Player of the Week honor. Smith had easy singles wins against Notre Dame de Namur, Mills and Willamette playing anywhere between No. 3 and No. 5 on the singles ladder. She also swept all three of her doubles matches.

GO EAST YOUNG WOMEN: Pacific Lutheran heads to the east side of the mountains for two important Northwest Conference clashes against Whitman and Whitworth. The Lutes battle the Whitman Missionaries at 4 p.m. Friday, and then hit the road for a three-hour trip to Spokane. The following morning at 11, PLU takes on the Whitworth Pirates. The matches take on importance as they relate to the seeding for the Northwest Conference Championships scheduled for April 20-21 in Yakima. Currently, PLU sits in fourth place in the NWC with an 8-3 record. Whitman holds down the No. 3 spot with a 10-3 record, trailing Linfield (12-0) and Puget Sound (9-2). Whitworth is in fifth place with a 7-6 record. The top six teams in the standings qualify for the two-day tournament where teams play in head-to-head matches for the right to wear the conference title.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS: Pacific Lutheran has played both teams already this year, beating Whitworth by a 5-4 score on March 3 and losing to Whitman by a 6-3 count on March 4.

LUTES SWEEP SPRING BREAK COMPETITION: In an altered Spring Break schedule, Pacific Lutheran swept four opponents, though only three count on the final record. The Lutes opened the trip with an 8-1 win against Santa Rosa Junior College, a result that doesn’t count because of Santa Rosa’s status as a two-year school. The Lutes were next scheduled to play Sonoma State, but the match was cancelled. As a result, PLU scheduled a contest against first-year program Notre Dame de Namur and easily won by a 7-0 score. Notre Dame had only five players, so there were no matches at No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles. In addition, PLU head coach Janel Broderson did not play her top two players, Nicole Petrzelka and Erika Feltus, and the Lutes still lost only three games in the entire match. The following day the Lutes whipped Mills College of Oakland, 9-0, this time losing only 16 total games in the nine combined doubles and singles matches. The Lutes then ended Spring Break with a 6-3 triumph against conference foe Willamette on Saturday. Because of a scheduling conflict, the match scheduled for Sunday against Puget Sound was not played and will be made up at a date to be announced.

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