MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – The Linfield men's tennis team fell to the Lewis & Clark Pioneers 8-1 on Saturday, losing their third straight match.

The loss dropped Linfield to 2-6 on the season and 0-2 in the Northwest Conference. Lewis & Clark, one of the top teams in the NWC so far this year, improved 5-1 (3-0). It was the Pioneers' fifth straight win.

DOUBLES
All three flights of doubles competition on the day proved to be competitive, despite the Pios' winning all three contests.

The day opened with Matous Young and Rogue Stone dropping the No. 1 flight 8-5 to Lewis and Clark's top pairing of Logan Hausler and Krsitian Peev.

Isaac Milner and Nick Gabelman played well in the No. 2 flight but would eventually fall 8-6 to Alberto Dos Santos and Matt Chio.

In the No. 3 doubles flight Abraham Solomon and Cody Pickar battled back and forth with the Pioneers' Miles Stone and Bennett Gazor, but eventually Stone and Gazor pulled away in the tiebreaker, 7-1, to win the contest 8-7 and put Lewis & Clark ahead 3-0 heading into singles action.

"We came out playing solid doubles but had a hard time sustaining the level we needed and dug ourselves into a hole we couldn't get out of," said head coach Ben Belletto.
 
SINGLES
The top singles flight of the match featured Stone against Peev, with Stone showing to be a threat but eventually Peev winning 6-4, 6-3.

Linfield's one win of the day came in the No. 2 singles flight, with Gabelman beating Logan Hausler in three sets. Gabelman came out strong to win the opening set 6-1, but Hausler battled back to take the second 6-3.

Gabelman responded well enough in the final set to down Hausler 6-2 to win 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 and get Linfield on the board with the match score at 4-1.

In the No. 3 flight Young came out strong to win the first set against Chio 6-4, but Chio pulled away in the second and eventually won the flight 4-6, 6-2, 6-0.

Milner faced Miles Stone in the No. 4 flight, with Stone winning 6-1, 6-2 and although Pickar fought well against Gazor in the No. 5 flight, Gazor took the win 6-4, 6-2.

In the No. 6 flight the Pioneers set the final score at 8-1, Lewis & Clark, when Atticus Pallock beat Solomon 6-2, 6-2.

"We competed hard despite being down 3-0. Nick played a great match. Rogue battled hard. Matous showed tremendous growth today. Unfortunately, the Pioneers played better than we did today, so we regroup and come back tomorrow ready to compete," said Belletto.
 
NEXT
Linfield is back in action Sunday morning against Concordia-Texas (5-1) of the American Southwest Conference with the match scheduled for 9:00. NWC play resumes next weekend with a trip to Tacoma to face Pacific Lutheran (2-3, 0-2) on March 19 and Puget Sound (0-3, 0-2) on March 20.
 
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