SPOKANE, Wash. – The Linfield women's team won its ninth match in a row Sunday against the Whitworth Pirates 9-0, their fifth shutout of the season.
Linfield improved to 10-2 on the year and remained perfect in Northwest Conference play, holding a 6-0 record. The Wildcats have gone 6-2 away from McMinnville this season.
The Pirates fell 6-7 overall and 4-2 in conference play.
Sunday's result brought Linfield within one win of claiming at least a share of its fifth consecutive NWC regular-season title.
DOUBLES
Tessa Kern and
Lexie Matsunaga opened the day with their fourth straight victory to improve to as a duo, beating Whitworth's Aleah Kert and Hannah Plank 8-6 in the No. 1 flight.
In the No. 2 flight
Taryn Fujimori and
Maggie Fiocchi remained unbeaten when paired together against conference opponents with an 8-5 win over Kyndal Locati and Gracie Smyley, their seventh straight win in a row.
Linfield took the No. 3 flight 8-4 with
Allena Wong and
Emma Tuttle beating Jill Hughes and Grace Bethards 8-4 to improve to 6-3 as a team after starting the year 1-3.
SINGLES
With the score at 3-0 after doubles, Linfield managed to stay unbeaten despite three singles flights going to three sets.
In the No. 1 flight Fujimori improved to 5-1 in top flights, eventually winning on a 10-5 third set tiebreaker over Kert after having to take a 7-1 a tiebreaker to win the first set. The final score was 7-6, 4-6, 10-5.
Matsunaga remained unbeaten when playing in No. 2 flights with a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win over Plank to improve to 9-3 in singles on the season. Matsunaga's win clinched the match for the Wildcats with the score at 5-0.
Forester was able to get back in the win column in the No. 3 flight, but had to go to a full third set to do so, eventually topping Smyley 6-1, 3-6, 7-5.
In the No. 4 flight Wong coasted to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Locati for her sixth straight singles win.
In the fifth Fiocchi also had to play a third set tiebreaker to win her team-best eighth singles flight in a row, beating Hughes 4-6, 6-2, 13-11.
Linfield completed the sweep with Tuttle's win over Bethards to stay unbeaten at 7-0 in her freshman year, winning 6-2, 6-4 to set the final score at 9-0, Linfield.
NEXT
Linfield concludes their regular season at home hosting the Tacoma schools with Pacific Lutheran (4-6, 2-5) on Friday, April 15 and Puget Sound (4-5, 2-4) on Saturday, April 16 for Senior Day.
The postseason begins with the NWC Tournament on April 23 and 24, hosted by the regular season champion.
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