by Jonah Snyder | Staff Writer
Whitworth women’s tennis came out strong this weekend and notched their first two conference wins of the year. The two wins came against Pacific (Ore.) and Willamette, which takes them to 2-4 on the year and 2-3 in conference play.
Whitworth started off their winning weekend strong with an 8-1 defeat of Pacific. They won all of their doubles games and only lost one singles match.
“Pacific is a team that we could lose to, so beating them decisively 8-1 is part of what feels good, it is not just the win,” coach Rachel Aldridge said.
All of Whitworth’s wins in the singles matches came in dominant fashion as they were all straight set victories. There was only one tiebreak coming in senior Bella Hoyos’ match which she prevailed in straight sets 6-3, 7-6 (11-9).
After their victory Saturday, Whitworth moved on to a match with Willamette on Sunday. The Pirates were extremely dominant in this match defeating the Bearcats 9-0. Once again, all of the matches were straight set victories. Out of all six singles matches, Whitworth only lost seven total games while winning 72.
“It feels good to have hope and not feel defeated and to know that we can beat teams,” sophomore Paige Rohrbach said. “We are great team, we are together.”
Rohrbach won her match against Katie Adams of Willamette 6-0, 6-0.
The Whitworth women will be back at home as they try to continue their winning ways against Lewis and Clark State College for a non-conference match. They played earlier in the season and Lewis and Clark State won 6-3.
“They are a tough team always and we had a close match with them early on in the season,” Aldridge said. “We are definitely in a better spot now than when we saw them last and you always get more momentum when you play a home match.”
The Whitworth women seem like they are ready to get a win and carry their momentum forward.
Whitworth’s next conference matches will be against Pacific Lutheran University on March 18 and University of Puget Sound March 19 on the road.