FOREST GROVE, Ore. – Lewis & Clark College men's tennis took a 2-1 lead after doubles and won four singles matches to earn their first win over Northwest Conference rival Pacific University since April 2018 in non-conference play on Saturday.
THE BASICS
Lewis & Clark 6, Pacific 3
(Lewis & Clark 5-2)
(Pacific 0-4)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Junior
Matt Chio, sophomore
Kai Wills and freshman
Noah Sutin earned two wins on Saturday to lead Lewis & Clark.
Pacific earned the first point of the match with an 8-4 win at number one doubles as Jonathan Nguyen and Dawson Hose defeated
Joey Lyon and
Wade McDermott.
Sutin and Wills evened the match with an 8-5 win over Aidan Rooney and Alex Kinoshita in the second doubles flight.
Chio and sophomore
Landon Cronin gave the Pioneers the lead with an 8-6 win in the third doubles match over Ryley Chang and Lucas Fuhrmann.
Wills made it three wins in a row for Lewis & Clark with a victory in the two spot to open singles play. He easily took care of Rooney 6-2, 6-4.
Pacific earned the next two points by winning at the sixth and fourth singles to tie the dual. Fuhrmann won 6-2, 7-5 over Cronin in the sixth flight. Lewis & Clark's Lyon lost the first set of the number four singles in a tiebreak before falling in straight sets, 7-6 (4), 6-3 to Hose.
Sutin then won a close one singles match, 6-4, 7-5, over Joshua Matabuena to put the Pioneers a win away from clinching the team match.
Chio lost his first set to Nguyen at number three singles 3-6. The junior then pulled off a reverse sweep, winning 6-3, 6-3 to take the flight and secure the dual for Lewis & Clark.
McDermott fell 7-6 (8) in the first set of the fifth singles flight to Kinoshita and won the second set 7-5. Since Chio clinched the dual win, the third set between McDermott and Kinoshita went to a 10-point super tiebreak, with McDermott prevailing 10-4.
BY THE NUMBERS
- McDermott moved to 5-1 overall in singles play this spring and 4-1 at number five.
- Chio is 4-0 in the third doubles flight in duals this year.
- Lewis & Clark earned their first win in Forest Grove over Pacific since March 2013.
WHO'S NEXT
The Pioneers open NWC play on Saturday at 11:00 am when they host defending conference champion George Fox in the L&C Tennis Dome.