McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Whitworth clinched a spot in the Northwest Conference men's tennis tournament with a 9-0 win at Linfield on Saturday afternoon.

By improving to 10-6 overall and 7-3 in the NWC, the Pirates can now finish no worse than fourth in the final regular season standings.  The top four teams make the conference tournament.  Linfield fell to 2-14, 2-7.

Whitworth got off to a great start by sweeping the doubles matches.  The closest match was at #1 doubles where Daniel Redfern and Micah Spaun defeated Cody Levien and Zach Lyons 8-4. Ben Hamming and Stefan Dernbach teamed to beat Ben Brewer and Tyler Day 8-3 at #2 doubles.  Dustin McConnell and Matt Goebel ran past Micah Roos and Luke Kleinman 8-3 at #3.

None of the singles matches went more than two sets.  The tightest match of the afternoon came at #2 singles where Cameron Williams topped Roos 7-6 (5), 6-3.  McConnell (#3 singles), John Talbot (#5 singles) and Chris Englemann (#6) all gave up only a single game while winning their matches.

Daniel Redfern improved his #1 singles record to 12-4 with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over Lyons.

After a JV match against CC of Spokane on Monday, the Pirates will host NAIA Lewis-Clark State on Tuesday.  Next weekend Whitworth will close out the regular season by hosting Lewis & Clark and George Fox.  The Bucs are trying to catch GFU for third place in the standings.