Linfield University Athletics

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Linfield women's tennis team ended its California road trip Sunday with a narrow 5-4 win at Occidental College.
 
The match was pushed back an hour past its originally scheduled start time due to wet court conditions. It was the second of two that the Wildcats (3-1) ended up playing on the trip.

It was supposed to be the third of three matches in California for Linfield, but Saturday's match at Redlands was canceled due to winter storm conditions that persisted across southern California throughout the week.
 
Linfield gained an early advantage thanks to two wins in doubles play.
 
The Wildcats performance in doubles ended up making all the difference as the Tigers (2-1) stuck with the 'Cats for the rest of the match, the two teams going 3-3 through singles action.
 
DOUBLES
Occidental took the top-flight of doubles, 8-4, with Sarah Fleming and Andie Fukushige beating Linfield's No. 1 team of Lexie Matsunaga and Allena Wong, but the Wildcats took the lead with the second and third flights.
 
Taryn Fujimori and Emma Tuttle took the No. 2 flight 8-5 over Alexis Matabuena and Mathilde Depery to draw the match score even and pick up their first win as a pair this season.
 
Linfield pulled ahead going into singles when Sarah Forester and Alexis Garner improved to a team-best 3-0 as a duo. They beat Occidental's Emma Silber and Lillian Lin in the final doubles contest 8-5.
 
SINGLES
The Tigers managed to draw the match score to 2-2 with a 6-0, 6-0 win from Fukushige over Fujimori in the No. 1 singles flight.
 
Matsunaga got the lead back for Linfield in the No. 2 flight by outlasting Fleming 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in the first of three three-set contests of singles play.
 
Forester extended the Wildcats' lead to 4-2 in the No. 3 flight, handling Matabuena 6-1, 6-4.
 
Wong battled admirably with Occidental's Julia Chun in the No. 4 flight but eventually fell 7-5, 6-7, 6-4 to allow the Tigers back within a point in the match, but Linfield clinched the win in the No. 5 flight with a 6-2, 6-4 win from Tuttle against Silber, making the score 5-3.
 
With the winner determined, freshman Lisa Ponti fell in the No. 6 flight to Depery 6-4, 5-7, 2-6.
 
NEXT
The Wildcats return home this week to start the defense of their Northwest Conference championship. Linfield is ranked No. 34 in the country and No. 8 in the West Region in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association preseason rankings, the only NWC program to receive a national ranking.
 
Linfield hosts Willamette (0-3) on Saturday, March 4 before visiting George Fox (3-2) on Sunday.
 
The Wildcats will then have three matches in a row at home, hosting Whitman and Whitworth on March 10 and 11 before taking a pause from in-conference competition when Colorado College comes to town on March 26. Read Full Article