By Evan Giddings, Student Assistant Athletics Communications Director

SALEM, ORE. -- The Willamette University men's tennis team returns home this week to take on two non-conference opponents. First, the Bearcats will play Schreiner University (Texas) on Wednesday, March 18 at 1 p.m. (PST). Then on Friday, March 20, Willamette with compete against University of the Ozarks (Ark.) at 4 p.m.

Both matches will be played at the WU Tennis Courts.

Prior to entering the first match of the week, the Bearcats are 2-6 overall and 2-3 in the Northwest Conference after splitting two matches last weekend. The Bearcats defeated Linfield College by a score of 6-3, before falling to Lewis & Clark College, 9-0.

Against Linfield, the Bearcats gained victories in five of the six singles matches, as well as at #2 doubles. Sam Wexman (Jr., Tiburon, CA/Tamiscal HS) of Willamette won two close sets to take #1 singles over Ben McNair, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3. Jack Schreiber (Sr., Solana Beach, CA/The Grauer School) won #2 singles, 6-4, 6-4, against Kelsey Rosborough.

At #3 singles,Gunnar Lee (Jr., Hilo, HI/St. Joseph HS) defeated Joel Trousdale, 6-2, 6-4, while Blake Brash (Jr., Boise, ID/Boise HS) won by the same scores of 6-2 and 6-4 at #4 singles versus Lukas Kleinman. Jacob Blaisdell (Fr., Honolulu, HI/Punahou School) at #5 singles rounded out the victories by winning, 6-2, 6-2, against Alec Wisthoff.

The Bearcats fell behind 2-1 in doubles. Linfield won #1 and #3 doubles, but Willamette's team of Wexman and Brash achieved an 8-4 triumph over McNair and Micah Roos at #2 doubles. It was the third win of the spring for the tandem of Wexman and Brash.

This week's first opponent, Schreiner, currently owns a 3-8 overall record and is 1-1 in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. The Mountaineers are coming off of an 8-1 loss to George Fox University in the first of three matches in the Pacific Northwest. Schreiner will play Linfield on Tuesday, March 17, before traveling to Salem to take on the Bearcats.

Schreiner's singles lineup against the Bruins featured Nick Pena (Fr.), Austin Carrola (Sr.), Stephen Rogers (Sr.), Christian Casillas (Jr.),Teg Lozano (Jr.) and Michael Holder (Fr.) at #1 through #6 singles, respectively.

In doubles, Schreiner paired up Pena and Carrola at the #1 position, Rogers and Dayton Hancock (Fr.) at #2, and Josh Ramirez (Jr.) and Isaac Vasquez (Fr.) at #3.

Willamette's opponent for Friday, University of the Ozarks, is 4-1 overall and has not begun competition in the American Southwest Conference. The Eagles recently earned a 9-0 win over Westminster College (Mo.).

In that match, Ozarks featured a singles lineup of Todd Turner (Sr.), Bishop Bass (Sr.), Greg Knaggs (Sr.), Trevor Scott (So.), Corey Dillard (Sr.) and Spencer Turner (Fr.).

As for doubles, the Eagles' #1 team last weekend was comprised of Turner and Bishop. Their #2 team was included Knaggs and Jacob Organ (Fr.), while the #3 team featured Dillard and Scott.