WALLA WALLA, Wash. - The Cal Lutheran men's tennis team traveled to the Pacific Northwest to play a trio of matches in two days this weekend to cap off a stretch of five matches in six days with a plane trip mixed in.
SWARTHMORE def. CLU 6-3
The teams were forced to play indoors, which posed a challenge for the Kingsmen as the surface was much faster than they are accustomed to. CLU started its trip strong, taking two of three doubles from No. 30 Swarthmore, but a lone singles win at court six from Lucas Tilly was the remainder of the team scoring. After focusing on doubles play in practices, the No. 1 and No. 3 pairs of Gio Valdez and Jesper Lunding-Johansson and Dara Kashani and Michael Sulahian won 8-6 and 8-4, respectively. Tilly, a native of Washington who grew up playing indoors, used a third set tiebreaker to defeat Evan Han 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (10-3).
WHITMAN def. CLU 9-0
The second match of the day pitted the Violet and Gold against host and No. 18 Whitman. The teams served for nearly three and a half hours with the Missionaries proving too tough for the Kingsmen. Kashani came the closest to stealing a set at 6-3 in his first game against Philip Locklear in singles play and no one was shutout entirely.
LEWIS & CLARK def. CLU 9-0 - box score unavailable at time of release
To wrap up the weekend, CLU faced another tough opponent in Northwest Conference (NWC) Lewis & Clark. For the second time in as many outings, the Kingsmen were unable to muster a point, but again showed improvements and shrugged off the fatigue of a busy week. Lunding-Johansson and Valdez gave their No. 1 doubles opponents a run for their money before falling 8-5. In singles action, both Kashani and Lunding-Johansson played to final scores of 6-4 and 6-2 to highlight individual play. Everyone took at least one set against the Pioneers.
Notables: This was the only out-of-state trip for Cal Lutheran in 2016. Tilly grew up in Wenatchee, Wash., which is three hours northwest of Whitman College.
Up Next: Cal Lutheran (1-7) will return to Southern California for two more non-conference matches in the month of March with the first scheduled for Tuesday, March 15 against Skidmore (N.Y.) with first serve set for 2:00 p.m. at the Poulson Tennis Center.
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