WALLA WALLA, Wash. – In an early morning match at Bratton Indoor Tennis Center on Sunday the Linfield men's tennis team fell 5-4 to the Whitman Blues.
 
The one-win loss is the closest Linfield (2-7, 1-3) has come to beating Whitman (4-6, 3-0) since 2009.
 
"The guys were really awake and focused for an early morning road match," said head coach Alex Martin. "We played with great energy and intensity all across the board."
 
DOUBLES
The Blues took a 2-1 lead from doubles action with wins in the first and third flights.
 
Whitman's Noah Baker and Harshvardran Chopra beat Wilhelm Saiga 8-6 in the No. 1 and Artem Manov and Charles Rush downed Alexander Rosenquist and Matous Young 8-4 in the No. 3
 
The Wildcats first win of the day came in the No. 2 flight, with Rogue Stone and Seth Lee edging out Lucas Huang and Aidan Schutter 8-7.
 
"Rogue and Seth did a great job of fighting back from being down an early break to help us avoid the sweep," said Martin. "They played smart doubles and weathered the situation really well."
 
Stone and Lee are now hold a team-best 3-1 record as a duo this season.
 
SINGLES
Singles action proved to be tightly contested, but a 3-3 split would be enough for Whitman to win the match.
 
"Across the board in singles, guys were executing their game plans and playing under control," said Martin. "Today's effort was incredible. We won more matches today than we had combined in the previous 15 duals with them."
 
The top singles flight featured the first of three three-set contests on the afternoon.
 
Saiga set a competitive tone early for the Wildcats, blanking Chopra in the first set before Chopra countered with a narrow in the second, but Saiga eventually pulled out the win 6-0, 5-7, 6-3.
 
In the No. 2 spot Stone fell to Huang 6-0, 6-1.
 
In the No. 3 flight Lerfald picked up Linfield's most dominant win of the match, winning in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 over Schutter. Lerfald moved to 3-0 when playing in the third spot in the lineup.
 
"Brooks capped off a great weekend with another great win against an experienced player," said Martin.
 
The fourth flight followed a similar script as the first, but with the Wildcats on the wrong end. Lee fell behind Baker after only taking one game in the first set but responded with a win in the second before eventually falling 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.
 
In the No. 5 flight Rosenquist picked up his fourth singles win of the season when Alejandro Raffo was forced to retire with the score tied in the third set, anticlimactically ending an otherwise even match with Rosenquist winning 6-2, 2-6, 5-5.
 
"Alexander is learning how to use all the weapons that he has and it's so fun to watch him come to that point," said Martin.
 
In the final flight Nick Gabelman lost to Chris O'Farrell 6-3, 6-3.
 
NEXT
The Wildcats take next weekend off from competition and the next two weekends off from the Northwest Conference slate.
 
On March 26 they'll host Colorado College (0-4) in a double-header dual meet alongside the women's teams for both schools, the first of four straight matches at home for the Linfield men.
 
Linfield returns to NWC play the following weekend, hosting the Tacoma schools with Pacific Lutheran coming to town on April 1 and Puget Sound visiting the next day.
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