The Linfield men's tennis team fell 7-2 Wednesday to the Whittier Poets.
 
Linfield's visit to Whittier (2-3, 0-2) was the second of four matches for the Wildcats (1-3) in southern California this week.
 
DOUBLES
The Wildcats' first win of the day came from a tight battle in the No. 1 doubles flight where Wilhelm Saiga and Brooks Lerfald teamed up for an 8-7 win over Whittier's Ahmed Amer and Spencer Cinco.
 
The No. 2 flight proved to be a close matchup as well but went the way of the Poets with Seth Lee and Rogue Stone falling 8-6 to Kieran Carroll and Luca De Bona.
 
Whittier moved the match score to 2-1 at the end of doubles play with an 8-2 win in the No. 3 flight that saw Yash Nagdev and Mason Lebby team up to beat Nick Gabelman and Alexander Rosenquist.
 
SINGLES
Saiga ended up being involved in both wins for Linfield, running away with a 6-2, 6-1 victory against Cinco in the top singles flight.
 
Saiga's win brought Linfield even with Whittier on the match at 2-2 but the Wildcats were unable to find another victory for the rest of the affair.
 
Stone fell to Carroll 6-1, 6-1 in the No. 2 flight while Lee lost 6-2, 6-3 to De Bona in the third flight and Lerfald to Luuk Van den Hoek 6-0, 6-2 in the No. 4 contest, clinching the match for the Poets at 5-2.
 
The most competitive match of singles play came in the No. 5 flight when Rosenquist forced Ahmed to "win by two" in both sets despite losing the contest 7-5, 7-5.
 
Singles action wrapped up with Nagdev beating Gabelman 6-1, 6-2 in the No. 6 flight.
 
NEXT
The Wildcats will have a quick turnaround heading into the third of their four California matches in consecutive days, visiting NAIA opponent Westcliff University tomorrow at noon in Irvine.
 
Westcliff is ranked No. 10 in the first NAIA Men's Tennis Coach's Poll of the season.
 
Linfield then wraps up its California trip on Friday at 4:30, taking on the Caltech Beavers in Pasadena.
 
The Beavers are ranked No. 16 in the country and No. 4 in the West Region in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.
 
Linfield returns to Oregon to open Northwest Conference play at Willamette on March 4 before hosting George Fox the following day. Read Full Article