by Miranda Cloyd
After two crushing defeats, the Whitworth men’s tennis team rebounded with a victory against Puget Sound to conclude its weekend.
Lewis-Clark St. and Whitman both took wins over Whitworth, with scores of 8-1. The weekend ended in a Whitworth victory against Puget Sound with a score of 9-0.
Lewis-Clark State College was victorious over Whitworth on Friday, March 1, at the Whitworth Tennis Center. Whitworth’s solitary win was earned in the doubles competition.
Senior Cameron Williams assisted in the win of that match , partnered with freshman Drew Brigham in No. 1 singles. Williams and Brigham defeated LCSC’s Anders Tischer and Jeff Lowndes with a score of 8-5. Williams and Brigham improved from the pre-conference season defeat of 9-8 against LCSC.
“Drew and I had played the exact same team and lost in a tiebreak,” Williams said. “We had a little bit of redemption to come away with this time. Right now [we’re] just on fire playing together.”
Williams was defeated in No. 1 singles against LCSC’s Anders Tischer, with a final of 6-3, 6-2. This too was an improvement from the last time these two athletes met when Williams lost 6-1 in both sets.
“I played very well,” Williams said. “The guy I played was pretty tall so I made him run around a lot and hit a lot of low shots.”
The team traveled to Walla Walla, Wash. on Saturday to meet Whitman. Whitman was victorious in the end, scoring 8-1. For the second match in a row, Whitworth’s only point was earned through No. 1 doubles played by Brigham and Williams with a score of 8-5.
“Doubles was great,” Brigham said. “We put away points well and [Williams] had a lot of great volleys. We just gelled.”
Brigham and Williams faced Whitman’s Sam Sadeghi and Andrew La Cava. La Cava was ranked nationally at No. 19 last year.
Whitworth finished out the weekend with a win against Puget Sound at the Whitworth Tennis Center winning 9-0. All three doubles teams were victorious and every singles match was won in two sets.
Junior John Talbot, playing No. 5 singles, won the first set 7-5 and the second 6-1.
“My groundstrokes were great,” Talbot said. “I was able to keep aggressive and that definitely helped me to set up some points.”
Talbot and his partner, sophomore Matt Goebel, took the win at No. 3 doubles with a score of 8-4.
“We played really well,” Talbot said. “My serve was what I did really well and Matt was pretty aggressive at the net.”
Head coach Mike Shanks was pleased with the outcome against Puget Sound.
“I thought a couple of these might be a little closer,” Shanks said. “They’re playing the best that they’ve played. They’re doing very well right now.”
Whitworth will spend the week preparing for their home matches on March 8 and 9. Friday’s match will be against Linfield College and Saturday’s will be against Pacific Lutheran University.
Contact Miranda Cloyd at mcloyd16@my.whitworth.edu