MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – The Linfield women's tennis team continued to roll through their Northwest Conference schedule with ease on Sunday, beating their cross-county rival George Fox Bruins 8-1.
Linfield's strong performance stretched their win streak to seven and their bumped their home record up to 4-0. They now sit at 8-2 on the year with a 4-0 mark in Northwest Conference play.
The Bruins fell to 11-7 and 3-3 in conference play.
DOUBLES
Linfield started strong in the No. 1 doubles flight with
Taryn Fujimori and
Lexie Matsunaga improving to 3-0 on the year as a duo with an 8-1 win over the George Fox's Danielle Brown and Olivia Morris.
The Bruins lone win of the day came in the second doubles flight as Casey Hitch and Kalli Wiker defeated
Maggie Fiocchi and
Allena Wong. It was just Linfield's second loss in doubles action in conference play this year.
The No. 3 flight went the Wildcats' way as
Sarah Forester and
Emma Tuttle beat Elli Mangan and Abigail Bond 8-2, putting Linfield in front 2-1 heading into singles.
SINGLES
The top singles flight of the day proved to be the most competitive contest of the match, with Fujimori having to battle against Brown.
Brown took the opening set, but Fujimori countered with a strong second, forcing a third set tiebreaker. Fujimori came out the victor, winning the matchup 4-6, 6-2, 10-8.
She is now 4-1 in singles this year when playing as Linfield's top seed.
Linfield found much less resistance the rest of the way, starting with Matsunaga handling Wiker in the No. 2 flight, 6-1, 6-2, to pick up her ninth singles win of the year and seventh straight.
The No. 3 flight saw Forester continue a run of strong play with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Morris, stretching her singles win streak out to eight and her record to a team-best 8-1.
Wong kept things rolling for Linfield with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Hitch in the No. 4 flight, and
Maggie Fiocchi recorded the lone shutout of the day in the No. 5 flight with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Brenna Vanderyacht.
Fiocchi is now 5-0 when playing in the No. 5 flight.
The No. 6 flight saw freshman
Emma Tuttle continue the impressive start to her career, winning 6-2, 6-4 over Bond to improve to 6-0 in singles.
Tuttle's win set the final on the match at 8-1, Linfield.
NEXT
The Wildcats' schedule continues with their toughest conference foe coming up as they will travel to Walla Walla, Wash. for a date with the Whitman Blues (10-4, 4-0) on Saturday. They'll then head north to Spokane to play the Whitworth Pirates (5-6, 3-1) on Sunday.
They'll wrap up the regular season the following weekend at home, hosting Pacific Lutheran (2-10, 0-4) on Saturday, April 15 and Puget Sound (2-3, 0-2) on Sunday.
The postseason begins on April 23 with the Northwest Conference Tournament, hosted by the regular season champion.
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