Linfield University Athletics

WALLA WALLA, Wash. – The Linfield's women's tennis season came to an end Sunday as the Wildcats fell 5-1 in the NWC Tournament championship round to the host-seed Whitman Blues.
 
The No. 39 Wildcats (12-3, 7-1) got a key win in the top doubles flight from Lexie Matsunaga and Allena Wong but the No. 29 Blues (13-5, 8-0) were able to control the action the rest of the way.
 
Linfield's trip to the conference tournament was its twenty-fifth consecutive. The Wildcats' appearance in the NWC tourney final round was their sixth consecutive and nineteenth overall in the tournament's 25-year history.
 
DOUBLES
Matsunaga and Wong were able to get the 'Cats on the board with their win in the No. 1 doubles contest. They topped Whitman's Angel Le and Sascha Wells 8-5.
 
Matsunaga and Wong, ranked as the No. 13 doubles team in the west, end the season with a record of 8-3.
 
The win was crucial to give Linfield a chance heading into singles play as the No. 1 doubles match was the final to finish of the three.
 
Whitman had jumped out to an early 2-0 lead by wrapping up wins in the No. 2 and 3 doubles flights.
 
In the No. 2 Taryn Fujimori and Emma Tuttle lost 8-1 to Teleya Blunt and Jin Yu. In the No. 3 Sarah Forester and Alexis Garner fell to Illina Jha and Camilla Tarpey-Schwed 8-4.
 
SINGLES
With Whitman holding a 2-1 lead heading into singles the Blues needed three wins to clinch the title.
 
The Blues ended up with wins in the No. 3 and 4 singles flights to set themselves up for a chance to clinch.
 
In the No. 3 Yu beat Forester 6-2, 6-3 while Jha topped Wong at No. 4 6-0, 6-4.
 
With the match coming down to the No. 1 singles flight, Fujimori battled found themselves in a pressure packed battle.
 
But despite an incredibly competitive first set Le managed to pull away in the second to win 7-5, 6-0 to clinch the 2023 NWC Women's Tennis Championship for Whitman.
 
It was the Blues' first championship since 2018 when they topped the Wildcats in McMinnville. Their championship snapped a three-year run of Linfield claiming the league title. 
 
No. 2 singles, between Matsunaga and Tarpey-Schwed, was the only other match in play when Le clinched for the Blues and was left unfinished.
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