Bearcats Travel to California for Ojai Tournament

By Robert McKinney, Athletics Communications Director, (503) 370-6110

SALEM, ORE. -- Four members of the Willamette University men's tennis team are traveling to Ojai, Calif., to compete in the prestigious Ojai Valley Tournament this weekend. Men's tournament action begins on Friday, April 23 and continues through Sunday, April 25.

Matthew Houser (Jr., Vancouver, WA/Evergreen HS) will compete in the Men's Independent Singles bracket. The independent bracket includes NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA players.

Willamette's other entries, freshmen Joshua Wong (Hilo, HI/Hilo HS) and Michael Baumgartner (Albany, OR/West Albany HS) and sophomore Cody Ferguson (North Bend, OR/North Bend HS/Western Oregon Univ.), are included in the Men's Division III bracket.

The Division III bracket is filled mostly with top athletes from the Northwest Conference and the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). Also competing are top NCAA Division III independent teams such as the University of California-Santa Cruz.

Willamette will have two teams competing in the Men's Division III Doubles bracket. Wong and Ferguson will be paired as one team, while Houser and Baumgartner will form the other team.

First round action in both of the singles brackets is set for Friday, April 23. In the Men's Independent Single bracket, Houser will take on Tiago Havashi of Westmont College (Calif.) from the NAIA. Match time is set for 8 a.m. (PDT).

In the Men's Division III Singles bracket, first round pairing have Wong facing Victor Chien of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) at 8 a.m. (PDT), Ferguson battling Shaun Herry of UC-Santa Cruz at 9:30 a.m., and Baumgartner playing #9-seed Silvio Chiba from UC-Santa Cruz at 10:30 a.m.

Following a second round of singles, the doubles matches will get underway Friday afternoon. Houser and Baumgartner will take on Andre Halabi and Parker Larsen from UC-Santa Cruz at 4 p.m. (PDT)., while Wong and Ferguson will meet Eric MacColl and Brandon Wei from Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at 3:30 p.m. The second round of singles also will be played on Friday.

Willamette, which is ranked #10 in the West Region, concluded the regular season and NWC Tournament with a 13-8 dual match record. The Bearcats tied for third place in the NWC with an 11-5 record and were seeded #3 for the NWC Tournament. WU advanced to the tournament final before falling to nationally ranked Whitman College.