NEWBERG, Ore. – The Lewis & Clark College men's tennis team secured the number three seed and their tenth consecutive trip to the Northwest Conference Championships Tournament this weekend in Newberg, where they will take on second-seeded Whitman College in the second semi-final on Saturday.
FOLLOW LIVE
Live video will be provided by George Fox University Athletics.
THE MATCHUP
#3 Lewis & Clark (10-4, 5-2 NWC) vs. #2 Whitman (10-12, 6-1 NWC), 2:00 p.m. Postseason games are played until the first team wins five matches.
PREVIOUS MEETING
March 9—Whitman 9, Lewis & Clark 0 –Despite the 9-0 score, five of the six singles matches went three sets, and four sets were determined in tiebreakers. The two teams also competed in a scrimmage two weeks ago; no score was recorded as it was a non-countable competition.
POSTSEASON MEETINGS (1999-2023)
The Pioneers and Blues have met seven previous times in the postseason, but this will be the first since the 2019 semi-final round. Whitman has won all seven postseason meetings, including two consecutive championship showdowns in 2017 and 2018.
SCOUTING THE PIONEERS
For the first time since the 2018 season, Lewis and Clark enters the NWC tournament with a seed higher than four. The Pioneers are riding a four-match winning streak, including a 6-3 win over Pacific University on Sunday, earning a sweep of the Boxers for the first time since 2013.
The Pioneers are led by sophomores
Kai Wills and
Wade McDermott and freshman
Joey Lyon in singles. The trio has played in all seven NWC matches and won at least four of them to lead the team. Overall, Wills has won 13 matches this season, while Lyon and McDermott have each won 12. Freshman
Noah Sutin and senior
Miles Stone are on a two and three-match winning streak, respectively. Sutin is 6-6 at number one singles this season, while Stone is 4-2 at number six.
In doubles, Wills (5-2), McDermott (4-3), and junior
Matt Chio (4-2) led with at least four NWC wins this season. On the season, Wills has accumulated 13 wins in doubles while going 7-2 at the number two spot, while both McDermott and Chio have 12 wins each in doubles. Chio went 7-2 in third doubles this season.
SCOUTING THE BLUES
Whitman earned the number two seed in the NWC Tournament after losing their lone conference match 9-0 to George Fox. The Blues easily defeated the rest of the conference field this spring, never losing more than three team points and taking the lead into singles play in all six conference wins.
In the most recent regional rankings released on April 10, Cameron Yang, Whitman's number one player was ranked #16 in the West Region. Yang finished 3-4 in NWC play and 5-10 overall.
In the other match on Saturday, #4 Pacific University will take on NWC regular-season champion and host #1 George Fox at 10:00 a.m. The Bruins won the previous meeting 7-2 over the Boxers on April 13 in Forest Grove. George Fox is ranked #36 in Division III and #8 in the West Region. The Bruins have two players ranked in the West Region Top 20, with Eli Mizerski ranked seventh and Vahag Pashayan at number 19.
WHAT'S NEXT
The winner of Saturday's match will earn a spot in the 2024 NWC Championship Match, which will be played at Noon on Sunday.
