TACOMA – It all came down to the day's final match, and Spencer Herron and Gunnar Lee made it a worthwhile finale as Herron outlasted Lee in three sets to give Pacific Lutheran a 5-4 Northwest Conference victory over Willamette Saturday afternoon at Sprinker Recreation Center.

Pacific Lutheran picks up its first win of the 2014 season, improving to 1-3 both overall and in conference play. Willamette falls to 1-5 overall and 1-3 in the NWC. The Lutes have no competitions lined up for next weekend, but will return to action March 14 with a home match against Whitman at 3:30 p.m. at Sprinker.

"Of course it's always nice to get a win, but it's even better to get some of these hard-working young players some of their first victories of the season," PLU head coach Rocky Poulin said. "We can build on this."

Playing in his first singles match in two years, Herron defeated Lee 6-4 in the opening set before Lee scored a 7-6 second-set victory with a 7-5 tiebreaker to force a decisive set. Herron picked up the 6-3 win to claim the singles match and the team match for the Lutes.

PLU also got singles victories from Sam Stadter in the No. 2 slot and Jake Yannello at No. 3, the first wins of the year for both players. Stadter defeated Will Cooper 6-3 and 6-0, and Yannello took down Devn Abney by consecutive 6-2 sets.

After Abney and Cooper teamed up to win the No. 1 doubles match, the Lutes claimed each of the next two doubles contests. Herron and Yannello defeated Sam Wexman and Lee 8-2, and Stadter teamed with James Okubo to defeat Blake Brash and Shrujan Kalidindi 9-7.