TACOMA - Pacific Lutheran moved into third place in the Northwest Conference men's tennis standings Wednesday evening with an 8-1 victory over the Puget Sound Loggers at the UPS Tennis Pavilion.

Playing singles without No. 1 player Joel Trudel, the Lutes nonetheless defeated the Loggers for the 38th consecutive time dating back to the 1992 season.

The Lutes started strong by sweeping all three doubles matches. Trudel and doubles partner Justin Peterson, ranked No. 4 in the West Region, opened with an 8-4 win over Mike Cutter and Nick Kelley on the No. 1 court. Michael Manser and Scott Sheldon beat Alex Harrison and George Murphy, 8-5, at No. 2, and Brent Smoots and Kevin Floyd topped Scooter Sabel and Andrew Timmons, 8-5, at No. 3.

Puget Sound picked up its only point at No. 1 singles where Cutter won a super tiebreaker from Floyd, 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 1-0 (10-6). PLU singles wins came from Peterson over Kelley, 6-2, 6-1, Manser over Harrison, 6-4, 6-4, Sheldon over Sabel, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, Taylor Dickey over Ben Miller 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, and Smoots over Brian Burger, 7-5, 6-1.

The Lutes, now 12-9 overall and 10-5 in the Northwest Conference, wrap up their regular season on Saturday when they travel to McMinnville, Ore., to face Linfield, currently second in the conference with a 12-2 record. PLU has already qualified for the Northwest Conference tournament slated for April 16-17 in Yakima.

- PLU -