SPOKANE, Wash. - Whitworth University used a sweep of the doubles against visiting Lewis & Clark College to defeat the Pioneers 6-3 in a Northwest Conference women's tennis match on Friday evening at the Scotford Tennis Center. The Pirates' win clinches second place in the final regular season NWC standings and, more importantly, the number two seed at next week's NWC tournament. The top two seeds at the conference tournament have first round byes and advance automatically to the tournament semifinals.

Click here for L&C match box score.

The Pirates swept to a 3-0 lead after doubles play behind an upset by Rachel Burns and Taryn Smith at the #1 spot. Burns and Smith pulled out a 9-7 win over Amalia Nilsson and Whitney DeBree, handing the Pioneer pair only their second defeat of the season. Meanwhile Linh Aven and Katie Staudinger had beaten Lisa Harunaga and Maggie Peach 8-4 at #2, while Justine Hays and Angela Anegon topped Paige Earhart and Teresa Kiemnec 8-3 at #3.

The Pirates managed to keep ahead of L&C by splitting the singles matches. For Whitworth, Staudinger (18-1 in singles this season) defeated Earhart 6-0, 6-1 at #3, Hays (15-3 in singles) came back against DeBree 5-7, 7-6 (5), (11-9) at #4 and Smith beat Kiemnec 6-2, 6-2 at #6.

Nilsson remained unbeaten in NWC singles play for L&C (15-0) with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Burns at #1, while Harunaga held on for a 6-1, 7-6 victory over Aven at #2 singles. Peach topped Anegon 6-3, 6-3 at #5 singles.

Whitworth was still missing Lexy Harrington, who normally plays #2 singles and on the #1 doubles team, with an ankle sprain.

The Pirates (15-4 overall, 13-2 NWC) will conclude the regular season at Whitman College on Sunday afternoon. Lewis & Clark (10-7, 10-5) concludes its Eastern Washington swing at Whitman on Saturday.