Tough trip for Lutes

Women’s tennis challenges Pirates, gets crushed by Missionaries

Casey Bloom

Mast Sports Reporter

Currey

It was an unsuccessful trip east of the mountains for the PLU women’s tennis team last weekend, as they dropped to 3-3 with losses to Whitworth on Saturday and Whitman on Sunday.

Saturday’s loss was the closest competition of the season, as the Lutes went down 5-4. The Lutes seemed to be off to a good start as they took two out of three doubles matches with wins by senior Erika Feltus and sophomore Ashley Coats at No. 1 and senior Liz Currey and first-year Emily Starr at No. 2. But in the singles portion the Lutes could only take two of six matches with wins by Currey at No. 2 and Starr at No. 5.

Feltus battled in the No. 1 singles match but lost in three sets to Whitworth’s Rachel Burns.
The Lutes carried their struggles into Sunday as they faced Whitman, losing by the score of 8-1.

The lone win came from Ashley Coats at No. 3 singles. Coats overcame illness to defeat Margo Lentz in two sets. Feltus and Currey battled through three sets in their singles matches but both came out on the losing end.

“I feel good about the way the girls played,” coach Lorrie Wood said of the weekend’s matches, “[They] fought hard, we had some bad breaks.”

The competition does not get any easier as the Lutes return home to face six-time defending conference champion Linfield on Friday.

“Linfield is one of our biggest competitors,” said Wood. “We are still dealing with some sickness, I think that healthy we can give them a good fight.”

The Lutes then are scheduled to host a doubleheader with Pacific, with two matches against the Boxers on Saturday.

You can reach Casey Bloom at bloomcr@plu.edu