The Pirate women’s tennis team finished out the Northwest Conference regular season on a high note, earning two wins on the road against Lewis & Clark College on Friday and George Fox University on Saturday.
The Pirates finish the regular season with a 9-3 conference record and a 13-5 overall record, placing third in the Northwest Conference. Whitworth finished the season ranked 10th in the region.
“We played well this weekend,” head coach Jo Ann Wagstaff said. “We didn’t have our No. 6 singles player but Janell [Talbot] stepped in and played well.”
On Friday, the Bucs were able to sweep the Boxers 9-0 in a dominating performance. Except for the highly competitive No. 1 doubles and singles matches, no Pirate allowed her opponent to win more than three games in any set.
Junior Jessi Steele had a strong day, winning in No. 4 singles 6-1, 6-1 and then teaming up with freshman Saryn Mooney for the 8-1 win in the No. 2 doubles slot.
Saturday went almost as well as the Bucs defeated the Bruins 8-1.
Three matches took extra time to complete, but the Pirates pulled out wins in two of the games. Senior Janell Talbot came back from losing the first set in her singles match for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Bruin Alissandra Wittrig.
Steele and Mooney had a very close match in No. 2 doubles but held on for the 9-8 (7-3) victory. It was the doubles pair’s fifth win of the season playing No. 2 doubles.
Whitworth will take on Lewis-Clark State College Wednesday April 15 in the team’s last non-conference home match before the Northwest Conference Tournament on April 21-22 where they take on Whitman College in the first round.
Contact Nathan Webber at [email protected].