Willamette Returns to Northwest Conference play after Week in California

By Evan Giddings, Student Assistant Athletics Communications Director

SALEM, Ore. -- After competing in three matches in California, the Willamette University men's tennis team returns from its spring break to take on George Fox University on Saturday, April 4th before heading north to battle University of Puget Sound on Sunday, April 6th. The GFU match is set for 1 p.m. (PDT), while the match at UPS is scheduled for 11 a.m.

The Saturday home match will take place at the WU Tennis Courts if weather permits. If it rains, the match will be played at the Courthouse Tennis Club (1379 Madison NE, Salem, OR).

Coming into the weekend, the Bearcats hold an overall 2-9 record and are 2-3 in Northwest Conference play. Despite losing their three matches over the break, they did compete well in a 6-3 loss against the #13 ranked team in the Western Region of NCAA Division III, California Institute of Technology.

Jack Schreiber (Sr., Solana Beach, CA/The Grauer School) earned the win at #2 singles against Rushikesh Joshi by scores of 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), while Jacob Blaisdell (Fr., Honolulu, HI/Punahou School) triumphed at #5, winning a close first set, 6-4, before sweeping to a 6-0 victory in the second set against Alexander Henny.

Also, Derek Lund (Fr., Helena, MT/Capital HS) won #6 singles, 6-2, 6-1, over Fabio Arai.

Willamette's first opponent this weekend, George Fox, currently sits at 10-5 overall and is 5-2 in the NWC. In their last match against Chapman University, the Bruins featured a singles lineup of Spencer Watanabe (So.), Chris Lilley (Jr.), Andrew You (So.), Nicholas Grafton (So.), Vincent Viloria (Fr.), and Chace Stalcup (Sr.) playing #1 through #6, respectively.

As for the Bruins doubles play, they competed against Chapman with teams of Watanabe and You playing #1, Lilley and Stalcup at #2, and Viloria and Grafton finishing at #3.

In Saturday's match, WU will take on a Pugert Sound team that is 1-7 overall and 0-7 so far in NWC play. The Loggers recently picked up their first match win of the season, beating Bellevue College (Wash), 5-4, last week.

The singles lineup for the Loggers when they played the Bearcats earlier this season consisted of Daniel Deuel (Jr.), Joe McRoberts (Fr.), Colton Wright (So.), Abe Noyes (Jr.), Andrew Struzenburg (Fr.), and Jacob Kompolt (Fr.).

Meanwhile, in doubles, the duos were McRoberts and Struzenburg at #1, Deuel and Chris Severt (So.) at #2, and Wright and Chet Selis (Fr.) playing the final #3 spot.