McMINNVILLE, ORE. -- Willamette University's doubles team of Andrew Murakami and Micah Mack (So., Wenatchee, WA/Wenatchee HS) advanced into the quarterfinals of the Wilson/ITA Men's Tennis Small College Regional on Friday, Sept. 21 at Linfield College. Murakami and Mack, seeded #6, will take on the #1 seeded team of Matt Solomon and Etienne Moshevich from Whitman College on Saturday, Sept. 22 at 12:30 p.m. (PDT).
Murakami and Mack opened doubles play by defeating Jasper Follows and Robert Rye of Whitman, 8-4. In the second round, they moved past Joe Wales and Josh Steele of Whitworth, 8-3.
Also on Friday, three Willamette players won opening matches in the singles draw. Donovan LeDoux (So., Keizer, OR/McNary HS) defeated James Odan of Pacific Lutheran University, 7-5, 6-3. Murakami edged past Jared Vidano of Pacific Lutheran, 6-3, 2-6 (10-7), as a super tie-breaker was played instead of a third set. Mack downed Luke Rembold of Linfield, 6-2, 6-3.
LeDoux fell to #3-seeded Justin Larimore of PLU in the second round, but battled back from a 6-4 loss in the first set to take the second set, 6-4. Larimore won the super tie-breaker, 10-5, to win the match. Murakami also lost a tight match in the second round, as he fell to Nadeem Kassam of Whitman. Kassam won 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 10-4. Mack fell to Solomon of Whitman, seeded #2, by scores of 6-1 and 6-3 in the second round.
Eric MacMillan (Sr., Twin Falls, ID/Twin Falls HS) lost in the first round of single, but claimed an 8-2 win over Jordan Vargas of George Fox University in the first round of the consolation bracket. Likewise, Fitz Paccione (Sr., Encinitas, CA/Cathedral Catholic HS) lost in the first round, but downed Phil Munsterman from the University of Puget Sound, 8-3, in a consolation match. Also winning in the consolation bracket was Matt Houser, who defeated Matt Kaufman of Linfield, 8-0.
LeDoux and Alex Sepenzis defeated Joshua Kai-Corpuz and Ryan Ford of Pacific in the first round of doubles, before losing in the second round. MacMillan and Houser also won in the first round, as they earned an 8-4 victory over Scott Barnett and Ralf Schultz from George Fox. MacMillan and House lost in the second round.
Wilson/ITA Men's Tennis Small College Regional -- Complete Willamette results from Friday, Sept 21
(The pairings for WU's next matches on Saturday, Sept. 22 are included)
