TACOMA, Wash. - The Pacific Lutheran University men's tennis team is heading to Newberg, Oregon this weekend for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Northwest Regional.
 
The Lutes are coming off a strong showing in an exhibition event hosted by the University of Puget Sound last weekend with Michael Campbell and Marcus Lee winning the No.1 doubles event. 
 
All members of the Lute tennis team got some valuable experience last weekend. Alex Richter won the No. 2 singles flight and Jake Kim advanced to the final flight No.2. Michael Larson is a new member of the Lutes and picked up his first collegiate win. 
 
The Lutes are still relatively young. There are no seniors on this year's squad. Branson Near and Alex Richter, both juniors, are the only upperclassman. 
 
As the team prepares for this weekend, Head Coach John Campbell talks about what the team is looking to accomplish. 
 
"With ITA's coming up so early this season, and us having only six practices, it will be a challenge to be ready to compete this weekend. With that being said, we still have expectations of playing well and competing. My goal is to get our group of young guys as much match experience as possible, and ITA's will give a chance to work on that goal," said Campbell. 
 
"Our overall goal this year is to have a great attitude along with a great effort every day! We have a great group of young men, who are working hard to be the best they can be and to represent our team and PLU with excellence. We have six returners from last year, Michael Campbell, Marcus Lee, Hampus Pers Eliasson, Jake Kim, and Branson Near who all played in the starting line-up last year and Alex Richter who has raised his level to join in our top six. We also have two newcomers, Michael Larson and Lars Wangen who had their first college experience last weekend and we look forward to them contributing to our team.  ITA's are much different from our regular team matches, as it is an individual tournament format, but one of our goals is to still support each other as a team while the others are competing"
 
The ITA Regional gets started on Friday and runs through Monday. NWC rival George Fox University is hosting the tournament.