Split with best, worst of NWC

Lutes beat last place Pacific, lose to undefeated Linfield

Brendan Abshier - abshiebk@plu.edu

Mast Sports Reporter

The Lutes cooked up a 5-4 victory last Friday while visiting Pacific University at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center in Beaverton, Ore. before Saturday’s match versus regionally ranked Linfield.

The tennis dome turned into a sauna when temperatures approached 100 degrees and caused the No. 6 singles match between junior Kristina Bruner and Boxer counterpart Leslie Nguyen to come to a close.

The retirement gave Bruner a 6-7, 6-1, 2-0 victory.

“I was frustrated because I was down in the first set,” Bruner said. “I lost that one, but I came back and was winning. I felt like I was going to go on and win. I wanted to prove it to myself and my team, but I was frustrated that the match was canceled. That’s a tough way to win or lose.”

The Lutes won the first three battles in the singles matchups prior to the steaming surrender to the weather. Sophomore Ashley Coats took a swift 6-1, 6-1 victory in the No. 1 slot over Jaime Yoshino. In the No. 2 spot, sophomore Ashley Brooks decided to do the same thing as her teammate, winning her match 6-0, 6-2 beating Dayna Wong.

First-year Ester Ham threw down a quick 6-0, 6-0 win over Jamaica King at No. 3.

In the doubles department, Pacific had the advantage winning two of the three matches. Pacific’s Stephanie Velligas and Sami Richards found an intense 9-8 win over Brooks and Ham at No. 2.
The Boxer’s second doubles victory came from Laura Swenson and Vena Haynes’ win over Lute first-year Makara Thach and Bruner 8-5.

Coats and senior Morgan Jones for PLU avoided the sweep in doubles competition by defeating Wong and Yoshino 8-5.

Pacific’s singles victories came from team members Richards and Tessa Krebs.

Richards won 7-6, 7-5 while Krebs defeated Thach 6-0, 6-3 before the heat of Bruner versus Nguyen took affect on the match.

Saturday was turned upside down when Linfield wrapped up their sixth straight undefeated Northwest Conference regular season record beating PLU 9-0.

“I think our team goal was to improve as much as possible and try to do our best in the conference,” senior Erika Feltus said. “I don’t think any of us had any idea how hard the competition would be this year.”

Wildcat senior Kasey Kuenzli tied the Linfield career singles record gaining her 62nd victory over Feltus.

Bruner was able to recover from the previous day’s heat taking her match into three sets until Sarah Click eventually won the scuffle.

Last weekend’s play moves the Lutes to 9-10 on the season (7-9 NWC).

PLU heads to Yakima next weekend for the Northwest Conference Championships. Match times are to be announced.

Photo by Chris Hunt

Senior Erika Feltus prepares to return a ball during a doubles match against Whitworth April 5. The Lutes will compete in the Northwest Conference Championships this weekend and will enter the tournement as the No. 6 seed.