WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- A day after falling to nationally-ranked Swarthmore, the Lewis & Clark Pioneers swept the Cal Lutheran Kingsmen 9-0 in another neutral site match-up at the Bratton Indoor Tennis Courts.
In the initial Oracle/ITA Division III West Region rankings, Cal Lutheran was ranked No. 8, five spots ahead of the Pioneers, but Lewis & Clark took all three doubles matches before winning the six singles matches in straight sets on Sunday.
Competing in the No. 2 spot, Raed Attia and Kevin Ross had the widest margin of victory in doubles, beating Chris Hartman and Lucas Tilly 8-2. The region's eighth-ranked duo improved to 3-1 on the spring season.
Harrison Collins and Daniel Hahm played together for the first time this season in an 8-3 win over Dara Kashani and Michael Sulahian in the No. 3 position. The Pios' top pair, Gordon and Brenden Barrows, moved to 4-3 on the year with an 8-5 defeat of Gio Valdez and Jesper Lunding-Johansson in the top pairing.
All three of the Pioneers' 4-6 singles competitors won by 6-1, 6-2 scores. Hahm (4-3) took the No. 4 spot over Sulahian, Collins (5-2) defeated Hartman in the fifth position and Brenden Barrows (4-2) took down Tilly at No. 6.
Gordon Barrows (3-3) competed in the top singles spot for the second straight dual, beating Valdez 6-3, 6-2. Michael Brewer (2-1) was in the No. 3 position in a 6-2, 6-4 defeat of Lunding-Johansson.
Kevin Ross was the only singles order change from Saturday. Instead of Raed Attia, Ross (3-1) played at No. 2, winning over Kashani 6-4, 6-1.
Pios host Division I North Dakota in Portland
Meanwhile, Lewis & Clark hosted North Dakota of the Big Sky Conference at the L&C Tennis Dome. Kei Inoue (1-0) won the only match for the Pios, defeating Ty Misialek 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 in the No. 2 spot.
Along with Inoue (pictured right), four other Pios were making their spring season debuts.
Parker Nichols played in No. 3 position, forcing a first set tiebreaker before falling to Travis Lau 7-5, 6-3.
The bottom three singles matches all went to the visiting Fighting Hawks. Connor Oberle beat Jacob Newhall 6-0, 6-0, while Joe Lee defeated Cameron Smith 6-2, 6-1 at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively. Ben Sands dropped the No. 6 match to Eshan Varma 6-1, 6-2.
Ben DeLuca (1-1) played in the top spot for the Pios, losing to David Bergstrom 6-1, 6-3. He had paired with Inoue in the top doubles match, a 6-2 loss to Lau and Bergstrom.
Nichols and Smith lost 6-2 to Oberle and Matt Hokanson at the No. 2 spot, while Newhall and Sands challenged Lee and Misialek in the third position, ultimately losing 7-5.
Lewis & Clark will have its full roster available for their next Northwest Conference match-up on Mar. 13 against Pacific. The Pios then leave for a five-match stretch in California over spring break before returning for home matches with Whitman and Whitworth on Apr. 2-3.
Other Northwest Conference Scores - Sunday
Whitman 7, Swarthmore 2
Pacific 9, Willamette 0
Seattle 8, Pacific Lutheran 1
