By Robert McKinney, Athletics Communications Director, (503) 370-6110

SALEM, ORE. -- Cody Ferguson (Jr., North Bend, OR/North Bend HS/Western Oregon Univ.) of Willamette University advanced to the singles final of the USTA/ITA Men's Tennis Small College Northwest Regional on Monday, Sept. 27. Ferguson was defeated by Andrew La Cava of Whitman College in the finals match, 6-1, 6-1.

Ferguson, seeded #8, defeated Chris Bailey of Whitman, seeded #9, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1, in the semifinals at the WU Tennis Courts on Monday morning to advance to the final. La Cava won the tournament despite starting as the #16 seed.

During the tournament, Ferguson earned a 5-1 match record. He won his first round and second round matches in straight sets without losing a single game. He defeated Sam Sadeghi from Whitman, 6-1, 6-1, in the Round of 16, and downed Jeff Tolman of Whitman, 7-5, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Ferguson is the first Willamette men's tennis player to reach the ITA Regional finals since the Bearcats joined NCAA Division III in 1998-99.

In the doubles final, La Cava and Conor Holton-Burke from Whitman, the #5-seeded team, defeated Bailey and Sadeghi, 6-1, 6-1.

La Cava will represent the Northwest Region in the singles bracket at the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships in Mobile, Ala., on Oct. 14-17. La Cava also will compete in the doubles bracket with Holton-Burke.

Ferguson was one of several Bearcats who competed at the Northwest Regional. Joshua Wong (So., Hilo, HI/Hilo HS) and Matt Houser (Sr., Vancouver, WA/Evergreen HS) both reached the Round of 16 in singles. Wong was defeated by Bailey in three sets, 7-6 (7-0), 2-6, 6-4. Houser fell to the #1 seed, Mark Magdaong from Linfield College, 6-2, 6-3.

On his way to the Round of 16, Wong moved past George Murphy from the University of Puget Sound, 6-0, 6-0, and downed Will Huskey of Whitman, 6-2, 6-1. Houser opened the tournament with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) triumph over Joe Wales of Whitworth University, and then slipped past Peter Brown of George Fox University, 6-4, 6-3.

Michael Baumgartner (So., Albany, OR/West Albany HS) won his first round match over Marshall McNally of Pacific Lutheran University), 6-1, 6-4, but lost a close match to Quin Miller of Whitman in the second round. Miller edged out Baumgartner, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.

In doubles, Ferguson and Wong earned two wins before falling to the eventual champions, La Cava and Holton-Burke, 8-2, in the quarterfinals. Ferguson and Wong defeated Scott Kawamura and Evan Liu of Pacific University, 8-1, in the first round and outlasted Brian Lays and Micah Spaun of Whitworth, 8-4, in the second round.

Willamette freshman Will Cooper lost a challenging first round match against #7-seeded Etienne Moshevich, 6-2, 6-1, but rebounded well in the consolation singles bracket. Cooper reached the consolation quarterfinals with wins over Michael Parretta of PLU, 8-5, and against Andy Tweet of GFU, 9-7.

Cooper lost to eventual consolation champion Scott Sheldon of Pacific Lutheran. Sheldon held off Cooper, 8-4.