WOMEN’S TENNIS: Lutes Face Whitworth in NWC Tourney

THIS WEEK: The Pacific Lutheran women’s tennis team will travel to Yakima to take part in the 2007 Northwest Conference Championships scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the Yakima Tennis Center. The Lutes are the No. 4 seed in the tournament and will face No. 5 seed Whitworth College in the first round with the match getting underway at 8 a.m. Friday.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE: The winner of the PLU versus Whitworth match will battle No. 1 seed and five-time defending conference champion Linfield in the semifinal round. The other side of the bracket has No. 3 Whitman versus No. 6 Willamette, with the winner advancing to meet No. 2 Puget Sound. The women's semifinal matches are scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Friday, with the semifinal winners playing for the title at noon on Saturday.

LAST YEAR: Linfield won its fifth straight NWC title by defeating Pacific Lutheran, 8-1. PLU was the last conference school besides Linfield to win the crown, beating the Wildcats, 5-4, in the 2001 event.

PLU SPLITS WITH OREGON FOES: Pacific Lutheran was able to split a pair of matches this past week. The Lutes first fell to conference leader Linfield, 8-1. The Wildcats won all three doubles points, though two went to super tiebreaker. Sallie Katter and Jeanna Parks defeated Bria Smith and Ashley Coats 9-8 (10-4) at No. 2, and Molly Nelson and Kelli Sides beat Ashley Brooks and Tracy Fujitani by the same score at No. 3. Linfield’s Becca Johnson and Megan Rodgers beat PLU’s Erika Feltus and Nicole Petrzelka for the second time this season at No. 1 doubles, taking an 8-3 win. Feltus and Petrzelka have lost only three doubles matches the entire year. The Lutes got their one point from Liz Currey at No. 4 singles. She defeated Katter in a super tiebreaker, 2-6, 6-4, (10-7). Petrzelka took Johnson to three sets in the No. 1 singles match before dropping a 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 decision. The George Fox match was a different story as the Lutes won all three doubles matches and took five of the six singles competitions in straight sets. The Lutes improved to 13-5 after the weekend.

LUTES UPSET LOGGERS: The Lutes were able to knock off cross-town rival UPS, 5-4, last week. Pacific Lutheran got off to a jump-start by winning two of the three doubles matches. The Loggers quickly made up ground on the Lutes by winning two singles matches. With Puget Sound up 3-2 in the match the Lutes’ No. 6 Tracy Fujitani was able to topple Christina Podlusky in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, to even the match at 3-3.With the score all tied up the Lutes looked to Bria Smith and Erika Feltus to help seal the upset. In the No. 5 match Smith dropped the first set to Alyssa Wolf, 6-4. Smith was able to keep the match alive by winning the second set, 6-4. The final set was all Smith as she dominated Wolf, 6-0. Smith’s win put the Lutes up 4-3 with the number two singles match between Feltus and Alyssa Sidoff up next. Sidoff overpowered Feltus in the first set 6-1, only to have Feltus come back and take the second set in dramatic fashion 7-6 (7-5). The final and decisive set was setting up to be a barnburner, only to have Feltus win in convincing fashion, 6-3. The final action of the day saw Coats fall to Schultz 6-3, 6-3 in the No. 3 singles match. The Lutes edged out the Loggers 5-4 in the final score to seal the upset. The win also avenged a 6-3 loss to the Loggers earlier this season.

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