OJAI, CALIF. -- Willamette University's two doubles teams competing at the Ojai Valley Tournament received challenging draws in the Men's NCAA Division III Doubles bracket and lost to quality opponents in the first round on Friday, April 23. The Bearcats were matched against one team from the University of California-Santa Cruz and one team from Claremont-Mudd Scripps. UC-Santa Cruz is the defending NCAA Division III team champion and CMS is ranked #1 in the West Region this spring.
Andre Halabi and Parker Larsen of UC-Santa Cruz defeated Willamette's Matthew Houser (Jr., Vancouver, WA/Evergreen HS) and Michael Baumgartner (Fr., Albany, OR/West Albany HS), 8-2. Eric MacColl and Brandon Wei of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps downed Joshua Wong (Fr., Hilo, HI/Hilo HS) and Cody Ferguson (So., North Bend, OR/North Bend HS/Western Oregon Univ.) of Willamette, 8-1.
Wong of Willamette earned wins in his first two singles matches on Friday and will compete in the Round of 16 in the Men's NCAA Division III Singles bracket on Saturday, April 24. Wong will play #5-seeded Marc Vartabedian from UC-Santa Cruz at 9:30 a.m. (PDT).
Matthew Houser was one of four WU tennis players who competed in the Men's NCAA Division III Doubles bracket.
