Pacific Lutheran dominated visiting Whitworth in doubles play and got the match-deciding team point from Allison McClure in singles on Saturday in taking a 5-4 Northwest Conference women's tennis victory at Sprinker Tennis Center.

With the win, the Lutes improve to 5-3 both overall and in the conference, which moves them into fourth place in the standings. Whitworth is now 3-5 overall and 3-4 in the NWC.

The Lutes put together an impressive display in sweeping all three doubles matches. Samantha Lund and Payton McGriff were sharp in beating Saryn Mooney and Taylor Pena, 8-3, in the featured match. Leah Newell and Tina Aarsvold improved to 7-1 at No. 2 doubles with an 8-3 victory over Jessi Steele and Morgan McDivitt, and McClure and Katherine Patton finished off the doubles sweep with an 8-2 decision over Annika Westre and Megan Wingfield.

The match was far from over, however, as the Pirates battled back by winning three of the first four singles matches, all of them going to a third set.

Newell picked up a PLU win at No. 2 singles, beating Steele 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-3, but Whitworth won the other three three-setters. Mooney topped Lund at No. 1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, Pena topped McGriff at No. 3, 2-6, 6-1,6-2, and Wingfield got the better of Aarsvold at No. 4, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4.

With only the fifth and sixth singles matches to play the Lutes needed just one more victory, and they got it from McClure at No. 6 by a 6-4, 6-2 score over Westre. The No. 5 singles victory went to McDivitt by a 6-3, 6-4 score over Catherine Miolla. Both of those matches were close and ended at just about the same time.

Pacific Lutheran returns to action at 1 p.m. next Saturday when it hosts the College of Idaho in a non-conference match at Sprinker Tennis Center.

- PLU -