WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Kacey Incerpi won a three-set match against Jenna Gilbert to seal Lewis & Clark's 5-4 defeat of Whitman at the Whitman Tennis Courts on Saturday.
The win gives No. 20 Lewis & Clark the season sweep of the No. 25 Missionaries this season after a 7-2 win in Portland in February.
Incerpi fought back after dropping the first set, 4-6, to Jenna Gilbert. Incerpi won a second-set tiebreaker, 7-2, before closing out the match, 6-4, in the third set.
Lewis & Clark started slowly, falling behind 2-1 after doubles play. The Pioneers salvaged a point when 14th-ranked Christine Eliazo and Claudia Lew came back from a 7-2 deficit to beat Allie Wallin and Lindsey Brodeck, 9-7.
"Luckily, our All-American pair of Christine and Claudia found a way to salvage a doubles point by winning seven straight games," said head coach Patrick Dreves. "With one in our back pocket, our women went to work and found the fire they have been playing with this year."
Summer Garrison, Wiktoria Plawska and Eliazo all won singles matches in straight sets. In the top match, Garrison, the nation's No. 7 singles player, beat Jenna Dobrin, 6-2, 6-4, improving Garrison to 9-1 this season. Plawska won at No. 3 with a 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Wallin. Eliazo, the Northwest Conference's defending Women's Tennis Student-Athlete of the Week, beat Cello Lockwood, 6-3, 6-2.
Aurora Garrison lost in the No. 2 position, a two-set defeat to Mary Hill, 6-2, 6-2. Lew beat Brodeck, 6-1, in the second set after losing 7-4 in a first-set tiebreaker. Brodeck won 6-4 in the deciding set.
The Pios, which had swept the doubles matches against Whitman in February, lost the top two spots. Hanna Greenberg and Hill beat Incerpi and Plawska, 8-4, in the top match. Summer Garrison and Aurora Garrison fell 8-2 to Dobrin and Lockwood.
"Whitman came out firing in doubles and we were caught flat footed," said Dreves. "Our backs were against the wall today and it was nice to see that we could bounce back."
Lewis & Clark improved to 12-2 on the season and now has a two-game lead in the NWC's overall standings. The regular season champion will host three other teams for the NWC Championship on Apr. 23-24.
The Pios play at Whitworth on Sunday.
