SALEM, Ore. – Pacific Lutheran wrapped up a weekend sweep to open the spring women's tennis season, as the Lutes downed Willamette 8-1 Sunday afternoon.

"The team followed up yesterday's big win by playing very well again today at Willamette," PLU head coach Lorrie Wood said. "I couldn't ask for a better start to the 2016 season. It was nice to see their hard work at practice and in the gym pay off this weekend."

An 8-6 victory in the first doubles match proved to be Willamette's lone win of the day, as Mikaila Smith and Alexis Gjurasic narrowly edged Caroline Dreher and Samantha Lund. From there on it was all Lutes. Megan Beyers and Ingrid Ericksen defeated Hannah Andres and Elena O'Shea 8-5 in the second doubles match, while Emily Beemsterboer and Emily Bower claimed an 8-4 win over Katie Adams and Allie DiPasquale.

PLU swept the singles round, with the only close match coming at the top of the lineup. Dreher held off Smith 6-2, 7-5 at number one in the last match to finish up Sunday. Lund downed Gjurasic 6-0, 6-1 in the second singles match, while Beyers claimed a 6-0, 5-0 (injury retirement) win over Andres at number three. Bower claimed a 6-1, 6-0 win over O'Shea at number four, and Beemsterboer swept Adams 6-0, 6-0. Lilly Le finished out the lineup with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Rachel Kong in the sixth singles match.

The Lutes return home for their next four matches. Next weekend PLU hosts Lewis & Clark Saturday and George Fox Sunday at Sprinker Recreation Center.

"We know we have a lot of tough matches ahead," Wood said. "So we plan to continue to push hard at practice and in the gym to bring our best game to the matches ahead as well."