MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – The Linfield men's tennis team opened its 2024 Northwest Conference slate the exact same way it did in 2023, with a 9-0 sweep over the Willamette Bearcats.
 
Linfield (3-2, 1-0) has now won 12 straight meetings with Willamette (0-6, 0-1), having swept now half of those matches.
 
DOUBLES
In the No. 1 doubles flight, Seth Lee and Rogue Stone continued their strong play as Linfield's top duo, winning their fourth straight match.
 
But it wasn't without resistance from Willamette's Andrew Kabacy and Quentin Nigbur as the match went down to the wire, Lee and Stone eventually pulling out the win in an 8-6 tiebreaker to win 8-7 (8-6).
 
Linfield won 8-3 in both the second and third doubles contests as freshman tandem Haven Hepton and Cameron Paulsen dismissed the Bearcats' AJ Avansino and Zack Olander while Matous Young and Alexander Rosenquist beat Andre Leif and Luca Casano to set the Wildcats up at 3-0 heading into singles.
 
SINGLES
The only game in Willamette's favor on the day came in the top singles flight between Lee and Kabacy.
 
Lee dominated the opening set 6-0, before an admirable response from Kabacy forced a third set, first-to-10 tiebreak, which Lee managed to win handily to take the contest 6-0, 5-7, 10-5.
 
From there, Linfield faced minimal resistance.
 
In the No. 2 flight Stone beat Nigbur 6-3, 6-1, while Rosenquist topped Avansino 6-0, 6-4 in the No. 3.
 
In the No. 4 Paulsen only dropped two games to Olander to win 6-1, 6-1 while Hepton also only lost two games in the No. 5, beating Leif 6-2, 6-0.
 
In the final flight Cody Pickar earned his first win in his first appearance of the season, winning 6-2, 6-4 over Willamette's Trey Allen, to complete the sweep for Linfield at 9-0.
 
NEXT
Linfield will face a much tougher test tomorrow, Sunday, March 3, as the Wildcats head to Newberg to face three-time defending conference champion George Fox (2-2, 1-0).
 
The 'Cats then host Whitworth on Saturday, March 9 before hosting Whitman the following day, before heading on the road for four matches, including two non-conference dates in California.
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