Lutes Players Fall at ITA Regional Tournament

McMINNVILLE, Ore. - Pacific Lutheran women's tennis players were all eliminated from the championship bracket on Saturday's first day of the 2009 Wilson/ITA Northwest Championships hosted by Linfield College.

Ali Burnside won a first-round match against Whitman's Zoe Kunkel-Patterson, 6-3-, 6-0, but she fell in the second round to No. 1 seed Rachel Burns from Whitworth, 6-2, 6-1. Cora Wigen had a surprising opening-round win over Lewis & Clark's Whitney DeBree, 7-6 (0), 6-4, but lost in the next round to No. 3 seed Natalia Agarycheva from Willamette, 6-1, 6-0.

PLU players losing first-round singles matches were Hailey Rile, Heidi Weston, Ashley Coats and Jessica Wilson.

In doubles play, the duo of Rile and Tina Aarsvold won their opener against Allie Michelotti and BetsyAnn Penman from George Fox, 9-8, but then fell to Willamette's Agarycheva and Shannon Palmer, the No. 4 seed, 8-2. The other PLU doubles teams of Wigen and Coats and Wilson and Weston fell in their first-round matches.

- PLU -