by Nathan Webber
The Whitworth Pirates men’s tennis teams split last weekend’s matches, losing to George Fox University on Friday but defeating Lewis & Clark College on Saturday in Oregon. The Bucs are now 3-2 in the Northwest Conference and 4-4 overall.
Senior Ben Hamming came away with two singles victories over the weekend, defeating George Fox’s player 6-4, 6-2 on Friday and beating Lewis & Clark’s player 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday, both in No. 6 singles.
The Pirates were overwhelmed in Friday’s match, falling to the Bruins 7-2. The Buc players stayed with the Bruins in singles though, losing 6-4 in at least one set in four of the six singles matches.
The Bucs were led in that match by a couple of strong senior performances as Daniel Redfern got the Bucs on the board with a 6-3, 6-0 win over the Bruins No. 1 singles player. Hamming was the other Pirate with a victory on Friday.
“There was a little bit of an adjustment to play outdoors, but George Fox was the first contest that we were evenly matched,” Hamming said. “Any match could have gone either way, but the score doesn’t reflect that.”
Saturday was a different story, however, as the Pirates beat Lewis & Clark 8-1.
The Pirates started off well as all three of Whitworth’s doubles teams won their matches. The singles players took it from there as three Pirate juniors won singles matches in the Whitworth victory.
The week started off strong for the Pirates with an exhibition match against the crosstown Sasquatch of the Community Colleges of Spokane, defeating CCS 7-2. However, since the match was an exhibition it does not count toward the Pirates overall record.
The Whitworth men’s tennis team will continue conference play on Friday and Saturday as it takes on Willamette College and Linfield College in the Scotford Tennis Center.
Contact Nathan Webber at nathanwebber13@my.whitworth.edu.