PORTLAND, Ore. –Lewis & Clark College men's tennis celebrated their lone senior,
Miles Stone, before Sunday's Northwest Conference regular-season finale against Pacific University, then celebrated again after defeating the Boxers 6-3 for the second time this season to earn the third seed in the NWC Tournament.
THE BASICS
Lewis & Clark 6, Pacific 3
(Lewis & Clark 10-4, 5-2 NWC)
(Pacific 6-11, 4-3 NWC)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Stone and sophomore
Kai Wills led the Pioneers with two wins each on Sunday to end the regular season with 10 wins for the first time since 2018.
All three doubles matches were decided by a tiebreaker for the first time this season in a dual, with Lewis & Clark prevailing with a 2-1 lead at the end of doubles play.
Freshmen
Noah Sutin and
Joey Lyon fell in the first flight 8-7 (7-4) to Jonathan Nguyen and Dawson Hose.
Wills and fellow sophomore
Wade McDermott tied the dual in the second doubles match by taking down Alex Kinoshita and Aidan Rooney 8-7 (7-1).
Stone and junior
Matt Chio gave the Pioneers the lead with an 8-7 (7-5) win at number three doubles over Ryley Chang and Joshua Matbuena.
Five of the six singles matches were closely contested, going three sets. Wills extended the Pioneers' lead at second singles with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over Nguyen.
Lyon played a similar match in the fourth flight, defeating Hose 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 to put Lewis & Clark one win away from clinching the dual.
Sutin went into a first-set tiebreak at number one single before going three sets with Matabuena. The freshman earned the Pioneers' fifth team point with a 7-6 (7-0), 3-6, 6-4 win.
Chio easily took set one in the third singles match against Kinoshita before losing the final two sets, falling in the match 0-6, 6-2, 7-5.
McDermott went into a first-set tiebreak with extra points but lost to Rooney 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 in straight sets.
Stone earned the final win of the day at number six singles. Playing in his final match at the Lewis & Clark Tennis Dome, Stone defeated Chang 6-4, 3-6, 10-4 for his second win of the day.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Lewis & Clark defeated Pacific twice in one season for the first time since 2013.
- Stone finishes his senior regular season with 7 singles wins and a 4-1 record in NWC play. He earned his 40th and 41st career wins against the Boxers and has a 25-19 career record in singles.
- Heading into next week's NWC Tournament, Wills leads the team with 26 total wins, 13 in both singles and doubles.
- The Pioneers will be playing as a seed higher than four for the first time since 2018, when they went into the NWC Tournament as the two seed.
WHO'S NEXT
Lewis & Clark will play Whitman in the second semi-final match on Saturday in Newberg, Oregon no earlier than 2:00 p.m. at the George Fox Multi-Use Facility.
