TACOMA – Pacific Lutheran swept the doubles round and split the singles matches as the Lutes claimed their first victory of the 2016 men's tennis season with a 6-3 road win over cross-town rival Puget Sound Saturday afternoon.

All three of the doubles matches were close, with the third match going to extra points. James Okubo and Alberto Leal teamed to defeat Joe McRoberts and Riley Inn 8-6 in the first match, while Jeremy Marsh and Noel Oteng-Mensah downed Daniel Deuel and Nicholas Lupan 8-5 and Justin deMattos and DJ Pekoc capped the sweep with a 9-7 win over Chet Selis and Andrew Struzenberg.

"We had an incredible sweep of the doubles, and DJ and Noel picked up their first singles wins of the year," PLU head coach John Cassens said. "Our doubles performance was special. Each squad had trials to overcome, and they did."

Oteng-Mensah outlasted Deuel 6-3, 1-6, 1-0 (10-7) in the second singles match, while all the other singles contests took only two sets. Marsh defeated Lupan 6-2, 6-2 in the third match, while Pekoc defeated Chris Severt 6-1, 6-4 in the fifth match. Puget Sound took the other three singles contests. Okubo fell to McRoberts at the top of the lineup 6-2, 6-2, while deMattos fell 6-2, 6-2 to Inn at number four and Thourk fell 6-3, 6-4 to Chet Selis at number six.

"Puget Sound has a very strong team," Cassens said. "I told the team that if losing didn't hurt, winning would not feel like this."

PLU visits NCAA Div. I Seattle Sunday in a nonconference match at 1 p.m.