PORTLAND, Ore. – Lewis and Clark College men's tennis celebrated their two seniors,
Kristian Peev and
Alberto Dos Santos, before the final regular season match on Saturday, then gifted the seniors a 7-2 win over Linfield University and earned the Pioneers' ninth consecutive Northwest Conference tournament berth.
THE BASICS
Lewis & Clark 7, Linfield 2
(Lewis & Clark 6-9, 4-2 NWC)
(Linfield 4-10, 3-5 NWC)
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Pioneers won all three points in doubles play to take the early advantage over the Wildcats. Two freshmen,
Landon Cronin and
Wade McDermott, helped their senior teammates earn their final doubles wins in the L&C Tennis Dome. Cronin and Dos Santos easily took the No. 3 doubles match 8-1 over Brooks Lerfald and Blake Fuentes Gilbert to earn the day's first point. Peev and McDermott won the final doubles point of the day with an 8-4 win over Nick Gabelman and Wilhelm Saiga at No.1 doubles. Sophomore
Matt Chio and freshman
Kai Wills won the No. 2 doubles match 8-5 over Rouge Stone and Seth Lee.
Dos Santos, Chio, McDermott and junior
Miles Stone all won their singles matches in straight sets to secure the team win for the Pioneers. Dos Santos defeated R. Stone 6-4, 7-5 at the No. 3 spot. Chio won the most dominant match with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Fuentes Gilbert at No. 2 singles. McDermott took a hard-fought match from Lerfald at the No. 4 spot, as the first set went into a tiebreak and the second set was won by two games, but the freshman prevailed 7-6 (1), 7-5. M. Stone easily took set one 6-1 over Lee at No. 5 singles, then secured the match 7-5 in set two.
Wills and Peev both dropped their singles matches, but Lewis & Clark still dominated Linfield. Peev fell 6-0, 6-2 at the No. 1 spot. Wills played the only match that went three sets at No. 6 singles. He dropped the first set to Alexander Rosenquist in a tiebreak 7-6 (3) before taking the second set 6-3. The third set was played as a 10-point tiebreak as the dual match had already been one by the Pioneers. Wills fell in a close 11-9 tiebreak.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Chio, McDermott, and Stone are all on a four-match winning streak in singles play, with Chio and McDermott 4-2 in the NWC, while Stone is 3-1 in conference play.
- Peev fell to 4-2 in NWC play and lost for the first time since March 4.
- The doubles teams of Cronin/Dos Santos and Chio/Wills have both won two in a row.
- Peev and McDermott have won six straight as a team and are 5-1 in NWC play.
WHO'S NEXT
Lewis & Clark concludes the NWC regular season on the road against Pacific tomorrow at 11 a.m.
