Pioneer LogLewis & Clark College’s Student-Run Newspaper

Tennis finishes with third place in NW conference

April 23, 2010

by Lindsey Bosse

The women came out of their final weekend of tennis at the NWC championships in third place after defeating Linfield in day two, 5-4.

Day one started with Lewis & Clark contesting the no. 4 seed Willamette and taking them 5-4. LC also played the no. 1, Whitworth, only to be swept 5-0 by the Pirates. The Pioneers were starting their championships without no. 1 player Amalia Nilsson, but managed to secure their play for third place on day two.

The game against Willamette surprised the opponents and pumped up the LC team. Double action started the match on a good foot. Whitney DeBree (’11) and Jill Coleman (’12) started the play with a convincing win 8-4. Duo Maggie Peach (’11) and Macrina Sharpe (’13) completed their first win of the season in doubles with 8-5. The match proved to be nail-biting, and the couple managed to pull out the win and keep the score in favor of the Pios as the team went into singles play.

Singles was a toss up, between several losses and a dominating win. Coleman played “her best tennis all season,” said coach Jimmy Chau. The teams needed two points to win. First it was up to Isabelle Borris (’13), who continued to show incredible progress in her strong play, and won. For the final point, Alyssa Morrison (’10) stepped up and managed to take down her Willamette opponent in three games. There was still one more game to go, and a needed win to hold the game in LC favor. First-year Macrina Sharpe (’13) stepped up and rallied until the end when her teammates dog-piled her after the win.

On day two, the team played Linfield for the number three spot. Both teams were lacking various teammates due to injury, not to mention Linfield was drained from coming out of an epic battle with Whitman. Both teams had been playing hard tennis, but pulled together to rally out for third.

Peach and Sharpe came together to gain the first point for the Pios in doubles. Linfield answered with wins in the number two and three spots, bringing Linfield to 2-1 going into the fourth double. Going into singles, Borris won the first match despite slight injuries.

Sharpe, too, pulled out a singles win for LC, although Linfield came back to 4-3 before the final two games. For her final game of her collegiate career, Peach pulled out a win for her team against Jill Heilbrunn. Once again, Coleman was left to make the decision, playing against Kirstie Franceschina for the final score between the teams. It goes without saying the Coleman was able to pull it off, and the team left conference with third place.

“I am just so proud of all the girls. Our young players especially, stepped up, played well, and had a competitive attitude that enabled us to get third place,” said Harunaga. “We believed in each other and ended up beating two teams that we had previously lost to in regular season.”

In her final year of tennis, Harunaga also made it onto the second team for the NWC, despite of the year she took off to be abroad in New Zealand.  Harunaga was only a few votes away from being on the first team.  

“I have really enjoyed my time on the varsity tennis team; it has been a valuable collegiate experience, but this season especially has been great,” said Harunaga.

Also, two-time player of the year Nilsson managed to make her way onto the first team in conference.  Nilsson has been struggling this season with shoulder and knee injuries.  Her first-team award is still a great achievement considering her setbacks.  

This season marks one of the strongest LC women’s tennis teams in a while.  The team will only lose a couple seniors, and still boasts a hefty number of strong first-years to carry over onto next year.  The program can only go up from here.