MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – The Linfield women's tennis team took a narrow 5-4 win over Colorado College at home on Sunday, just their second one-win victory of the year.
The Wildcats set themselves up nicely by sweeping their way through doubles against the Tigers and managed to clinch the win on the day by the end of the third singles flight.
Linfield, ranked No. 38 in the Division-III ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings, improved their overall record to 7-2 with the non-conference win. Colorado fell to 2-5 on the season.
DOUBLES
The 'Cats got off to a strong start by taking all three doubles flights and a 3-0 lead, the fourth time this season they've opened a match sweeping doubles competition.
Lexie Matsunaga and
Allena Wong improved to 5-2 as Linfield's No. 1 duo this season with n 8-6 win over the Tigers' Magdalene Gonzales and Maddy Meister.
In the No. 2 flight
Taryn Fujimori and
Emma Tuttle improved to 4-2, fending off Christina Heffron and Gigi Jensen in a narrow 8-7 win thanks to an 8-6 tiebreaker.
And in the No. 3 flight
Sarah Forester and
Alexis Garner moved to a team-best 7-2 this season with an 8-4 win over Malia Rivera and Abby Wilson to complete the doubles sweep.
SINGLES
The top singles flight featured a hard-fought three set match that included two tiebreakers between Fujimori and Heffron, with Heffron eventually winning 6-7, 6-3, 7-6.
Fujimori took the first set tiebreaker 7-3 while Heffron won the contest with a 7-4 tiebreaker in the third.
But Linfield managed to clinch the match thanks to wins in the second and third flights, both tightly contested as well but with the Wildcats winning in straight sets.
Matsunaga improved to 4-2 when playing as Linfield's No. 2 with a 7-5, 7-6 win over Lindsay Popeo, Matsunaga taking the win on a 7-4 tiebreaker.
In the No. 3 flight Forester clinched the win for Linfield with a 7-6, 6-2 win, taking the first set tiebreaker 7-3. Forester is now a team-leading 7-2 overall in singles and 5-1 as Linfield's No. 3.
Colorado finished strong by taking all three flights of the back half of singles action, but it wouldn't matter with the match in hand for Linfield.
Wong and Tuttle both dropped the opening sets of their respective matches but responded well enough to force 10-point tiebreakers.
Eventually both lost the long battles, with Wong losing to Gonzales in the No. 4 6-4, 2-6, 10-6 and Tuttle falling in the No. 5 to Jensen 7-5, 2-6, 14-12.
In the No. 6 flight Rivera beat
Lisa Ponti 6-1, 6-0 to draw the Tigers within one on final scorecard.
NEXT
Linfield resumes the Northwest Conference schedule next Sunday when they visit Puget Sound (0-8, 0-5) in Tacoma.
The Wildcats are looking to build on their 3-1 start to NWC action. They currently sit in second place in the league standings.
Linfield visits Pacific on April 8 before heading down to Eugene to take on the University of Oregon in an exhibition match the following day.
The 'Cats then wrap up the regular season at home on April 15 against Lewis and Clark.
