PORTLAND, Ore./MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – The Linfield men's tennis team opened its spring season over the weekend with a split of two non-conference matches against Northwest Conference opponents.
 
The Wildcats (1-1) fell 9-0 at Lewis & Clark (2-0) on Saturday before responding with a 7-2 win over Puget Sound (1-3) at Rutschman Fieldhouse in McMinnville.
 
SATURDAY DOUBLES
The Pioneers got off to a strong start on their home courts, sweeping all three doubles matches to begin the day.
 
The top flight of the match proved to be a battle, as Linfield's top pairing of Seth Lee and Rogue Stone took Lewis & Clark's Joseph Lyon and Wade McDermott game for game before Lyon and McDermott won the tiebreak 7-1 to win the match 8-7 (7-1).
 
Lewis & Clark took care of business in the second and third doubles contests.
 
In the No. 2 doubles flight the Pioneers' Landon Cronin and and Kai Wills beat Linfield's Cameron Paulsen and Abhi Acharya 8-2 while Matous Young and Alexander Rosenquist fell 8-1 to Matthew Chio and Noah Sutin, giving Lewis & Clark a 3-0 lead heading into singles play.
 
SATURDAY SINGLES
Singles play began with a Pioneer win in the No. 3 flight where Wills beat Rosenquist 6-3, 6-3, before Chio clinched victory on the day for Lewis & Clark with a 7-6, 6-3 win over Stone to set the match score at 5-0.
 
In the No. 1 singles match Sutin managed to top Lee 6-2, 6-4, while Lyon beat Paulsen in the No. 4 match 6-3, 6-2.
 
The Pioneers completed their sweep with a 6-1, 6-3 win for McDermott over Acharya in the No. 5 flight and Cronin beating Young 6-2, 6-1 in the final contest to set the final score at 9-0.
 
SUNDAY DOUBLES
Shaking off their tough Saturday outing, the Wildcats immediately responded at home the next day against Puget Sound to take doubles competition 2-1 over the Loggers.
 
In No. 1 doubles Lee and Stone dismissed Puget Sound's Noah Henderson and Conor Blakeney 8-4, while Paulsen and Haven Hepton held off Will Church and Branden Sawyer 8-7 by winning the tiebreak 7-5 to clinch doubles for Linfield in the No. 2 flight.
 
The Loggers got on the board with an 8-3 win in No. 3 doubles with Puget Sound's Jason Rowe and Tyler Blixt beat Young and Acharya 8-2.
 
SUNDAY SINGLES
Singles action began with Rosenquist, having rested through doubles play, cruising to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Blakeny in the No. 3 singles match to set the Linfield lead at 4-1.
 
Lee clinched the win at 5-1 for Linfield in the top singles flight. Lee faced resistance from Rowe but still managed to win in straight sets 7-5, 7-6.
 
All five Sunday wins for the Wildcats in singles competition came in straight sets.
 
Stone handled Henderson in the first set of the No. 2 flight but had to win by tiebreak in the second, eventually winning 6-4, 7-6 (10).
 
Paulsen easily managed Sawyer in the No. 4 singles contest 6-2, 6-3, while Acharya surpassed Matthew Zou 7-5, 6-2 in the No. 5 flight.
 
The final match of the day saw Puget Sound pick up its lone singles win in a battle between Hepton and Blixt. Blixt took the opening set 6-4 before Hepton responded with a 6-2 win in the second to force a tiebreaker third.
 
Blix outlasted Hepton 11-9 in the tiebreak to win 6-4, 2-6, 11-9 and set the final score at 7-2.
 
NEXT
The Wildcats will head to Walla Walla, Wash. on Friday, Feb. 16 to play Colorado College (1-3), hosted by Whitman College at the Bratton Indoor Tennis Center.
 
Linfield then returns to McMinnville to host Cal Lutheran (0-0) on Sunday, Feb. 18.
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