SALEM, Ore. – The Whitworth men's tennis team picked up its first win of the 2017 season by defeating Willamette 7-2 on Sunday afternoon at the Salem Tennis and Swim Club.
The Pirates took two of the three doubles matches and five of the six singles contests to improve to 1-6 overall and 1-4 in the NWC. The Bearcats dropped 1-5, 1-4.
Ian Fisher and Ben Bethards got the Pirates on the board first with an 8-6 win over Derek Lund and Douglas Hochmuth at #3 doubles. Caleb Hughes and Jake Bethards followed with an 8-3 win over Hunter Yee and Colin Fisher at #2. Willamette pulled out the closest match of the day when Gunner Lee and Aaron Schechter edged Shane Sandlin and Jeffrey Vulis 9-8 (7-4) at #1 doubles.
Vulis increased Whitworth's lead to 3-1 when he rolled past Lund 6-0, 6-3 at #5 singles. Schechter followed with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Hughes, pulling the Bearcats back to within 3-2. But it was all Pirates after that.
Jake Bethards earned a 6-2, 6-2 win over Hochmuth at #4 singles. Then Ian Fisher defeated Yee 6-3, 6-4 at #3 singles to increase the lead to 5-2 and clinch the team victory for the Pirates.
Sandlin ended up earning a win over Lee at #1 singles. Sandlin led 7-3 in the tiebreaker set when Lee retired. Ben Bethards held on for a 7-5, 6-3 win over Colin Fisher at #6 singles.
Whitworth returns to Spokane to host Pacific on March 12th. The nationally-ranked Boxers defeated the Pirates 7-2 this past Saturday.
