MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – The Linfield men's tennis team fell 9-0 in their first home conference match of the year Sunday afternoon to the George Fox Bruins.
"George Fox is a deep team with lots of experience and it certainly showed today," said Linfield (2-5, 1-1) head coach
Alex Martin.
"I thought we had good energy at the start of doubles, but ultimately that experience served them well as matches started getting towards crunch time."
The Bruins (4-3, 2-0) are defending Northwest Conference champions and ranked No. 24 in the country in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's preseason rankings.
DOUBLES
Wilhelm Saiga and
Nick Gabelman were paired in the top doubles flight for the second consecutive match after securing their first win as the No. 1 team on Saturday but faced a difficult task against George Fox's Vahag Pashayan and Camden Camacho.
Saiga and Gabelman put up a battle against one of the NWC's top duos, but eventually Pashayan and Camacho took the contest 8-5.
Matous Young and
Brooks Lerfald also played together for the second consecutive match as Linfield's No. 2 after a win the day before but fell to Eli Mizerski and Austin Stone 8-4.
In the No. 3 flight
Alexander Rosenquist and
Cody Pickar, making his second appearance in the lineup this season, lost to Hunter Fujimori and Alle Banna 8-3, putting the Bruins up 3-0 heading into singles.
SINGLES
The tightest flight of singles action was the No. 1 match between Saiga and Mizerski, Saiga forcing an extra game in the second set before Mizerski closed out the win, 6-3, 7-6.
Lerfald played Stone in the No. 2 flight, Stone winning 6-2, 6-3.
"
Brooks Lerfald had a great effort against another really talented freshman," said Martin. "He really settled into some good patterns, and just ran out of time to continue tweaking his decisions."
Rosenquist represented the Wildcats in the No. 3 singles flight, playing higher in the lineup than at any point in his freshman season, but fell to Camacho 6-0, 6-3.
Linfield was only able to take three sets the rest of the way, with the Bruins' Lars Schlassman beating Gabelman in the No. 4 flight 6-2, 6-0, and Young losing to Fujimori 6-1, 6-0.
In the No. 6 contest Pickar fell to Stone 6-0, 6-0, Pickar seeing his first singles action of the year.
"Up and down the singles lineup we had guys step into difficult positions and were able to compete really well," said Martin.
"We will learn a lot from this experience and continue to work hard and hopefully get a chance to see them again at the end of the year in conference championships."
NEXT
The Wildcats head to eastern Washington next weekend to play at Whitworth (3-7, 0-1) on Saturday, March 11 at 11:00 and followed by an early-morning Sunday match at Whitman (2-6, 1-0) at 8:00.
Linfield then takes the following week off from competition before hosting a non-conference contest against Colorado College, the first of four straight matches at home.
The 'Cats return to NWC action on April 1 in McMinnville against Pacific Lutheran.
