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Box Score 3 WALLA WALLA, Wash.—Sophomore
Spencer Loucks won the B Draw 2
nd Round Consolation Bracket Singles Title and teamed up with freshman
Max Furman to capture the Doubles First Round Consolation Bracket Title to lead Lewis & Clark College men's tennis at the 2023 Northwest ITA Regional Tournament.
HOW IT HAPPENED
In their final and biggest competition of the fall season, 13 Lewis & Clark players earned victories with Loucks leading the way with nine wins in 11 matches.
A SINGLES RECAP
Sophomore
Kai Wills and freshman
Noah Sutin each made it to the third round of the A Singles Main Draw to lead Lewis & Clark.
Wills defeated Willamette's Velibor Mladenovic 6-0, 6-1 in the first round to earn a matchup with one of the 16 ranked players in the draw. He upset Whitman's Noah Baker, who was one of the eight players seeded #9-16, 5-7, 6-0, 10-4 to earn a spot in the third round. He fell 6-2, 6-1 to Whitman's Luca Viarengo to end his run.
Sutin was the other Pioneer to make it to the third round. The Pioneers freshman was ranked in the #9-16 pool and earned a first-round bye. He dispatched Jonathan Nguyen of Pacific 6-3, 6-1, before falling to George Fox's Zach Moore 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 in an extremely tight match.
B SINGLES RECAP
Loucks won five matches, including each of his final four, to win the B Draw 2
nd Round Consolation Bracket Singles Title.
The sophomore opened the weekend with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Linfield's Cody Pickar. In the second round, Loucks fell 5-7, 7-5, 11-9 in a tight matchup against ranked (#5-8) Trent Beckman of Puget Sound. Loucks would bounce back in a big way from there. The sophomore would win each of his final four matches and drop just one set on his way to the title. He defeated Trey Allen (Willamette) 6-2, 6-1 and Levi Buck of Puget Sound 6-2, 6-4 to make it to the semifinals. In the semis, he rallied from a one set-deficit (6-2) to win 2-6, 7-5, 10-7 over Whitman's Jasraj Sethi. Loucks took home the title with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Mathew Merzbach of Puget Sound.
Junior
Bennett Gazor and freshmen
Bridger Galyardt and Furman each made it to the third round of the B Draw. All three players earned byes in the first round, with Gazor and Furman entering the tournament as #9-16 seeds.
Galyardt opened his tournament with a win over a ranked player. He knocked off #9-16 Will Church (Puget Sound) 6-4, 6-1. Furman added a comeback win over Whitworth's Butler with a 3-6, 6-3, 10-5 scoreline. Gazor defeated Sethi 4-6, 6-2, 10-5.
DOUBLES RECAP
Loucks and Furman teamed up to win the Doubles First Round Consolation Bracket Title and
Wade McDermott and
Joey Lyon combined for a run to the Quarterfinals of the Main Doubles Draw.
In their first match of the weekend, Loucks and Furman fell by an 8-6 score to Pacific's Lucas Fuhrmann and Ryley Chang. That would be the final loss for the duo. They destroyed David Lybeck and Sebastian Silverstein of Puget Sound 8-1 and then earned a spot in the finals after dispatching Jonathan Nugyen and Brandon Pham of Pacific 8-5. With the title on the line, Loucks and Furman defeated Willamette's AJ Avansino and Andrew Kropp 8-3.
Two Pioneers doubles teams earned trips to at least the third round of the Main Draw.
#9/16 McDermott and Lyon earned a bye to the second round. They then knocked off Whitworth's Lance Dunn and Nguyen 8-3. In the third round, the duo collected an extremely tight 8-7 (10-7) win over Noah Baker and Diego Guzman of Whitman. Their run finally came to an end in the quarterfinals. Matched up against the George Fox duo that would go on to win the Doubles Bracket, McDermott and Lyon fell 8-4 to Hunter Fujimori and Zach Moore.
#5/8 Sutin and Wills also started off doubles with a bye. The pair defeated Jackson Wurzer and Viarengo of Whitman 8-5 in the second round. They fell 8-7 in the third round in an extremely competitive match against Linfield's Seth Lee and Rogue Stone.
BY THE NUMBERS
- 11 Pioneers players collected victories in singles play and 13 players won at least one doubles match. 11 total players finished with at least one victory in both singles and doubles.
- Sutin and Wills each advanced to at least the third round of the main draw in both singles and doubles.
- The Pioneers went 5-1 in the first round of the A Singles Draw.
- Loucks finished the week 9-2 and his two losses came in an 11-9 third-set tiebreaker (singles) and an 8-6 match (doubles). He won 11 of the 11 sets he played in singles.
- Lewis & Clark finishes the fall season with a 25-13 mark in doubles play (.657 winning percentage).
WHAT'S NEXT
Lewis & Clark has concluded playing competitive matches for the fall. They will return to match play in late January or early February.
