by Miranda Cloyd
Whitworth fell to conference-leader Whitman last weekend, but gave the Missionaries their closest match to that point in the conference season. Whitworth was defeated with a score of 6-3, securing two victories in singles and one in doubles. The defeat puts Whitworth at 3-3 in the Northwest Conference standings.
Whitman is undefeated in the conference season and stands at 6-0. The Pirates’ head coach Jo Ann Wagstaff sees success in Whitworth’s score compared to any other team that Whitman has met during the conference season so far.
“We had the best score anyone’s had against Whitman this year,” Wagstaff said. “We just continue to improve every week.”
Sophomore Morgan McDivitt went undefeated against Whitman. Meeting Whitman’s Katrina Allick in No. 6 singles, McDivitt won in two sets. The first was a tiebreaker of 7-2 and the second scored 6-3.
“I made her move around the court,” McDivitt said. “I brought her up to the net and then passed her.”
McDivitt and her partner, senior Morgan Wingfield, defeated Whitman in No. 3 doubles with a score of 8-4.
“We were just really consistent and kept the ball back,” McDivitt said. “If we made a mistake we’d just get over it and look to the next point.”
Sophomore Caylee Lamm clinched a win playing No. 5 doubles against Whitman’s Madison Webster. Lamm went three sets, the first two scoring 6-4 and 3-6. Lamm took the tiebreaker with a score of 10-6.
“My strength was consistency in my shots,” Lamm said. “Not going for the win right away, hitting a lot to her backhand, trying to mix it up a little but making sure I wasn’t the one ending the point due to an error.”
Whitworth and Whitman will go head-to-head again next month in Walla Walla, Wash. Whitworth will spend this week preparing to travel to Tacoma to meet Pacific Lutheran University on Saturday, March 9.
Contact Miranda Cloyd at mcloyd16@my.whitworth.edu