Men's Tennis Team Competes at ITA Northwest Regional

By Robert McKinney, Athletics Communications Director, (503) 370-6110

WALLA, WALLA, WASH. -- The Willamette University men's tennis team competed at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) 2014 Small College Northwest Regional at Whitman College this weekend. Play-in qualifying matches were held on Friday, Sept. 19, with the main brackets in singles and doubles starting on Saturday, Sept. 20.

Sam Wexman (Jr., Tiburon, CA/Tamiscal HS) of Willamette won his first round match in singled, as he edged past Chace Stalcup of George Fox University, 6-3, 2-6, 1-0 (10-7), in a super tie-breaker played instead of a third set.

Wexman's second round match went to a third set. Daniel Hahm of Lewis & Clark College outlasted Wexman in their second round match-up, 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.

Also competing in the main singles draw for Willamette were Jacob Blaisdell (Fr., Honolulu, HI/Punahou School), Jack Schreiber (Sr., Solana Beach, CA/The Grauer School), Blake Brash (Jr., Boise, ID/Boise HS) and Shrujan Kalidindi (Jr., Cupertino, CA/Monta Vista HS). All four lost matches in the first round.

Harrison Collins of Lewis & Clark downed Blaisdell, 6-1, 6-2. Clark Wininger from Pacific University defeated Schreiber, 6-2, 6-0. Phillip Lockleeer from Whitman downed Brach, 6-0, 6-0, and Adam Rapoport from Whitman outscored Kalidindi, 6-1, 6-3.

Willamette's three teams in the main draw of doubles were defeated in the first round. Gunnar Lee (Jr., Hilo, HI/St. Joseph HS) and Baisdell played a close match with Mitchell Miyashiro and Nicholas Grafton of George Fox. Miyashiro and Grafton prevailed, 8-5.

Petar Jivkov and Robert Carter of Whitman defeated Brash and Derek Lund (Fr., Helena, MT/Capital HS) of Willamette, 8-3. Collins and Michael Brewer of Lewis & Clark moved past Wexman and Kalidindi of WU, 8-3.

The ITA Small College Northwest Regional was Willamette's only competitive event scheduled for the fall season. The Bearcats will return to action in the spring.