MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – The Linfield men's tennis team won its first dual match of the season on Sunday, defeating the Willamette Bearcats 8-1 in a non-conference match in Rutschman Field House.
It was the first win for Linfield under new interim head coach and program alum Alex Martin.
"I'm really happy for our guys," said Martin after the win. "They're definitely growing as the season begins to press on. They're learning the ins and outs of their own games and really working well to support each other along the way. This is a group that really supports each other regardless of where anyone plays in the lineup. They've all worked hard together and are all invested in each other's successes."
DOUBLES
The Wildcats set the tone early in the day by taking all three doubles flights.
In the No. 1 flight Linfield's
Rogue Stone was paired with newcomer
Seth Lee, playing in his first match for the Wildcats. Stone and Lee defeated Willamette's top duo of Andrew Kabacy and Quentin Nigbur 6-2.
The No. 2 doubles flight featured
Matous Young and
Brooks Lerfald for the Wildcats against the Bearcats' Andrew Kropp and Velibor Mladenovic, with Young and Lerfald edging out Kropp and Mladenovic 7-5.
Linfield went up 3-0 on the day when
Nick Gabelman and
Alexander Rosenquist downed Luca Casano and Andre Lief 6-3.
"Our doubles play will always be of greater importance in the D-III game and these guys have been playing high percentage doubles in starting off with an 8-1 record in doubles if you include the exhibition against the University of Oregon club team," said Martin.
SINGLES
Playing single "pro sets" to eight to speed the pace of play, Linfield went unbeaten through singles action on Sunday.
The top singles flight was where the Bearcats found their one win of the match, with Kabacy beating Stone 8-3 to put Willamette on the board with the score 3-1.
In the No. 2 flight Lerfald faced Mladenovic and controlled the action on the way to an 8-3 win.
Lee managed to clinch an early victory for Linfield in the No. 3 flight with an 8-2 win against Nigbur in the widest margin of victory of the day, setting the match score at 5-1.
"Today was a great day for
Seth Lee, as he got his first collegiate win, and that win happened to be a clinch too, which was really cool," said Martin.
In the fourth flight freshman
Alexander Rosenquist won the first match of his collegiate career with an 8-3 win over Kropp, while
Nick Gabelman beat Willamette's Trey Allen 8-3 in the No. 5 flight.
The match concluded with
Matous Young defeating Andre Lief in the No. 6 flight 8-4, setting the final score on the match at 8-1.
"I was really impressed with the way that
Nick Gabelman locked in after a slow start and executed his game plan," said Martin. "
Alexander Rosenquist and
Matous Young both made similar strides once they figured out how they needed to be successful in their matches too."
NEXT
Linfield will take the next two weeks off from competition before heading down to southern California for four non-conference matches in four consecutive days, starting on Feb. 22 against the Whittier Poets, followed by matches with the Westcliff Warriors, the Caltech Beavers and the Redlands Bulldogs.
The Wildcats return to Oregon to open Northwest Conference competition for a rematch with the Bearcats in Salem on March 4. Their next match in McMinnville won't be for a month when they host the George Fox Bruins on March 5.
