By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications
WHITTIER, Calif. -- Whittier College won two of three doubles matches, including a tie-breaker victory at the #2 position, to take a lead over Willamette University entering singles play. The momentum carried over for the Poets, who won five of six singles matches to defeat the Bearcats, 7-2. Whittier advanced to 3-6 on the season, while Willamette dropped to 2-3.
At #1 doubles, Whittier's team of Kindall Yeung and Amanda Rodriguez outscored Willamette's Sarah Dean (So., Boise, ID/Timberline HS) and Robin Pashek (So., The Dalles, OR/The Dalles-Wahtonka HS), 8-3. In the battle at #2 doubles, Avery Turner and Kallysta Lopez of the Poets downed Sylvia Marr (So., Grants Pass, OR/Hidden Valley HS) and Alexis Gjurasic (Sr., Olympia, WA/Capital HS) of WU, 8-7 (7-3).
Willamette prevailed at #3 doubles, as Siena Ginsburg (So., Bend, OR/Summit HS) and Hannah Andres (Sr., Sammamish, WA/Skyline HS) defeated Madeline Schmidt-Perez and Stacey Bendanillo, 8-3.
Gjurasic won for the Bearcats at #5 singles. She held off Kiara Embrey in both sets to win, 6-4, 6-3.
The Poets earned victories in the remaining singles flights, but it took a super tie-breaker played instead of a third set for Yeung to win against Dean in the top singles match. Yeung took the first set, 6-4, and Dean won the second set, 6-4, before Yeung won the super tie-breaker, 10-5.
Also winning in singles for Whittier were Rodriguez at #2, Turner at #3, Lopez at #4, and Julie Cutler at #6. In the #6 singles match, Cutler edged out Andres in the first set, 6-4, and then won the second set, 6-0.
The Bearcats will play at Hope International University on Monday, March 25 in Furllerton, California. The match is slate to begin at 11 a.m. (PDT).
Big Moment of the Match for Willamette
Alexis Gjurasic won #5 singles in straight sets, as she held off
a strong challenge from Kiara Embrey of Whittier to register a
6-4, 6-3 victory. Gjurasic also teamed up with Sylvia Marr at
#2 doubles, where they played a solid match before falling to
Avery Turner and Kallysta Lopez in a tie-breaker, 8-7 (7-3).