Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – No. 28 Bates College proved to be a tough test Thursday afternoon for the No. 19 Whittier College men's tennis team who opened up their 2015 campaign on the Richard Ettinger Tennis Courts falling 8-1.
Playing without their top player Samuel Farmer (Carlsbad, CA), Head Coach Ben Belletto was forced to move his lineup around bringing in an alternate at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles. The Poets found themselves in an early hole dropping two of three doubles matches with the lone victory coming at No. 1 from sophomores Troy Chavez (Temecula, Calif.) and Tyler Linscott (Tuscon, AZ) who held off Pierre Planche and Christopher Ellis 8-4 who came in ranked No. 8 in the Division III National Polls.
This would be the lone win for the Purple & Gold on the afternoon as they dropped all six singles matches.
Whittier did have some close matches however with Shogo Shimizu (Tokyo, Japan) falling in a tight 6-4-6-3 match with Ellis at No. 2. Junior transfer David Stanko (Morena Valley, Calif.) had to move up to No. 1 and faced a tough No. 39 Planche falling 6-2, 6-3 and Linscott at No. 4 put together a strong comeback only to fall 6-4, 6-2 to Brent Feldmen.
Whittier returns to the courts tomorrow, Saturday, February 21 as they travel to take on Caltech beginning at 10:00am.
