The Eastern Washington University men's tennis team returns home to host Whitworth this Friday, Feb. 17 with first serve set for 4 p.m. Pacific Time inside the Jim Thorpe Fieldhouse. The Eagles look to improve their overall record of 2-5 with a victory over the Pirates.
Last week, EWU traveled to Lewiston, Idaho and walked away with a 4-3 comeback win over Lewis-Clark. The victories saw
Steven Paz defeating Dan Felker at the No. 1 singles spot and
Tyler Dalos winning at No. 4 over Itaru Kikuchi.
Drew Dillon took down Austin Swing at No. 5 singles and
Bruno Ortega found success over Daniel Tevez at No. 6. The Eagles clawed to victory after giving up the doubles point to the Warriors. With the overall series standing at 13-16, the Eagles improve to an eight-match winning streak over LCSC, with their last lost dating back to Feb. of 2006 in Cheney.
On Feb. 12, the Eagles returned to Idaho and battled the Vandals to a 6-1 defeat inside the Kiddie Dome. The match marked EWU's first Big Sky Conference duel, as they now sit 0-1 in league play.
Bruno Ortega collected the only point for the Eagles in singles play after a comeback in set two, he won the tiebreaker, 10-9.
SCOUTING WHITWORTH
Whitworth has yet to find its first win of the season, sitting 0-3 overall. The Pirates suffered a pair of 7-0 defeats to Montana and one to Lewis-Clark. The Eagles faced Whitworth last season at home in dominant fashion, allowing only four points across all three doubles matches and winning five singles match in two sets.
Eastern holds an overall series record of 22-9 versus the Pirates, with a 20-match winning streak. Additionally, the Eagles have dominated Whitworth 7-0 in nine of their last 11 competitions, allowing only 15 total points across the past 20 matches.
Whitworth is led by head coach Cameron Williams, who enters his fourth year at the helm after serving as the assistant coach from 2014-2019.
UP NEXT
EWU is back in action with Big Sky play next Friday, Feb. 24 against Montana State in Bozeman, Mont., at a time still to be announced.
