 "Photo: Marco Garcia/Whitworthian")
*This story contains a correction
Women’s tennis continued its winning streak at home this weekend against the Pacific Lutheran Lutes and the Puget Sound Loggers.
The women went into the weekend expecting competition from their opponents, but once again, the Pirates stepped up to the challenge.
After the doubles matches were over Friday afternoon, the Pirates had a 3-0 lead over the visiting UPS Loggers. Junior Rachel Burns and freshman Alli Marshall won at No. 1 doubles 8-2. Freshman Erica Bosman and senior Linh Aven took the No. 2 win 8-3. And senior Justine Hays and sophomore Katie Staudinger followed the trend with an 8-4 win at No. 3 doubles.
When singles began, the Pirates kept their focus to win all six matches. Bosman and Hays, playing at No. 5 and 6 respectively, both won 6-0, 6-0. Aven (No. 3), freshman Mya Towne (No. 4) and Burns (No. 1) only gave up one game in their singles sets. Marshall faced the toughest competition at No. 2 singles and came out on top as well with a 6-2, 6-1 win over her opponent.
Saturday proved to be a promising day for the Pirate women as well as they took the courts for doubles.
Towne and Aven won 8-0 at No. 2 while Staudinger and Hays carried out the trend in No. 3. Up 3-0 going into singles play, the Pirates kicked it into second gear for the second time during the weekend.
Burns and Marshall defeated their opponents with straight-set wins at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively. Staudinger did the same.
Hays won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 6 singles and Aven cleaned up 6-0, 6-2 at No. 3 singles to take the Pirates to their second 9-0 victory of the weekend.
“It is such an honor to play alongside these incredible tennis players,” Aven said.
Sunday brought on the Pirates’ third match in three days. Fatigued, the women planned to take on Whitman, their anticipated toughest competitor.
But to the Pirate women, tennis is tennis. They go out and they do what they know how to do. The women pulled out another pleasantly surprising 8-1 victory over Whitman.
“I’m just overwhelmed, I can’t believe we won 8-1, that’s ridiculous,” Aven said.
As the Pirate women work their way through the season their eyes remain set on the conference title.
“I feel that our team comes across a lot stronger every time we go out and compete,” Towne said. “I am confident in our success this season.”
But day in and day out, that confidence and that title is not what keeps them going. They realize that each game has to be played for itself, each day is a new day, both mentally and physically.
“Ultimately, I play tennis because of the girls on the team, to be honest,” Towne said. “They are what motivate me during a busy week of class and homework.”
While the women were at home fighting it out with the westsiders the men had a bit of their own work to do.
Friday proved to be a good day for the Pirate men as they took on the UPS Loggers.
Junior Michael Shelton, the Pirate’s No. 1 player, saw great personal improvement in his singles match. Beating the same opponent in their last confrontation, 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, Shelton only gave up one set this past weekend.
“I think singles is where we need to focus,” Shelton said. “We can’t get ahead of ourselves when we’re ahead 3-0 in doubles.”
And that proved to be troublesome for the Pirates as Saturday’s match began. Although they pulled it out the day before, the Pirates, up 3-0 once again to the Pacific Lutheran University Lutes*, had trouble maintaining their composure.
“We had a great doubles run,” senior Kellen Oetgen said. “We just couldn’t pull it off in the end.”
And thus, for both teams, the fight for the conference titles continues.
The men will face Linfield at home next weekend, while the women rest in preparation for some tough competition to come the following week against Willamette, Lewis & Clark and Linfield.
Women's Tennis NWC Standing
Contact Kara Heatherly at kara.heatherly@whitworthian.com.
*In the original article, the men's opponent on Saturday was incorreclty listed.
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