Linfield University Athletics

WHITTIER, Calif. – The Linfield women's tennis team opened their road trip to southern California with an 8-1 win over the Whittier Poets on Wednesday night.
 
The Wildcats improved to 2-1 on the young season by taking all six singles flights against the Poets (0-6, 0-2).
 
DOUBLES
Linfield's No. 1 doubles pairing of Lexie Matsunaga and Allena Wong set the tone for the match early in the top doubles flight, cruising to an 8-1 win over Whittier's Keeley Arendt and Maci Davis.
 
The Poets' lone win of the evening came in the No. 2 doubles flight with Manasvi Vardham and Malvika Suryavanshi topping Taryn Fujimori and Emma Tuttle 8-5.
 
The Wildcats took a 2-1 advantage on the scoreboard into singles play thanks to Sarah Forester and Alexis Garner edging out Jasmine Saunders and Emily List 8-6 in the No. 3 flight.
 
SINGLES
Singles action started with Matsunaga continuing her strong play with a 6-2, 6-3 win against Arendt in the No. 1 flight.
 
Fujimori had to battle to a third set in the No. 2 flight against Vardham after dropping the opening frame, but eventually pulled out the victory 4-6, 6-2, 10-8 to bring the Wildcats within a point of clinching the win.
 
Linfield did clinch the win at 5-1 in the No. 3 flight when Forester took down Davis in a 7-6 tiebreaker, winning the contest 6-0, 7-6.
 
The Wildcats faced little resistance from the Poets the rest of the way, with Whittier picking up no more than one game in any of the remaining flights.
 
In the fourth flight Wong easily handled Suryavanshi 6-0, 6-1 while Tuttle dismantled List 6-1, 6-0.
 
The score went final at 8-1 on the match when freshman Lisa Ponti took down Monze Meraz-Lerma 6-0, 6-1 in the No. 6 flight.
 
All six Wildcats who have played in the singles lineup for Linfield on the young season now have records standing at 2-1.
 
NEXT
The Wildcats will take the next two days off before resuming their California swing on Saturday at Redlands (0-0) at 10:00. The Bulldogs are ranked No. 15 in the country and No. 3 in the West Region in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.
 
Linfield visits the Occidental Tigers (2-0) on Sunday to end the California trip.
 
The 'Cats return home to open Northwest Conference action on March 4 hosting Willamette before visiting George Fox the following day. Read Full Article