Pirates Nearly Pull Off Second Upset of the Lutes in 2010
YAKIMA, Wash. - It was a matter of almost and not quite for the Whitworth men's tennis team in a 5-4 loss to Pacific Lutheran in the first round of the 2010 Northwest Conference tournament on Friday morning at the Yakima Tennis Club. The fifth-seeded Pirates (9-16) had two strong chances at the elusive fifth point, but could not complete the upset of the fourth-seeded Lutes (14-9). Whitworth had a chance to earn its second win over PLU this season. On March 13th the Pirates won their first match against the Lutes since 1991. The match was tied 1-1 after the first two doubles contests. Whitworth's Colin Barrett and Henry Williams won 8-6 at #3 over Kevin Floyd and Taylor Dickey. The #2 Lute team of Michael Manser and Scott Sheldon topped Joe Wales and Cameron Williams 8-4. The #1 Pirate team of Michael Shelton and Colin Zalewski led much of the match and had two good chances to put it away for a key second doubles point. But the PLU team of Justin Peterson and Joel Trudel rallied for a 9-8 (7-3) victory. Whitworth rebounded by taking two of the top three singles matches to knot the team score at 3-3. Shelton upset Trudel, the 2009 NWC Player of the Year, at #1 singles 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-2. Cameron Williams bounced back from a first-set loss to beat Floyd 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 at #3 singles. PLU's Peterson earned a 6-3, 6-3 win over Zalewski at #2. After Whitworth's Wales beat Manser 6-4, 6-4 at #4 and the Lutes' Dickey defeated Barrett 6-4, 6-1 at #6 to tie the team score at 4-4, the ultimate point came down to the #5 singles match between Henry Williams and Sheldon. Williams won the first set 6-4 and led 4-1 in the second set before Sheldon reeled off 11 consecutive games for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory. PLU advances to play top-seeded Whitman in Friday afternoon's conference semifinals. The originally scheduled 5th-6th place match has been cancelled, based on mutual agreement by the coaches. |
