FOREST GROVE, Ore. – Playing in a second consecutive match that came down to the final flight, the Linfield men's tennis team fell 5-4 Saturday at Pacific.
 
It was the final road match of the regular season for Linfield (4-8, 2-4). Pacific (5-9, 3-1) moved closer to clinching a spot in the Northwest Conference Championship tournament with two matches remaining on the Boxers' slate.
 
DOUBLES
Pacific took a 2-1 lead after doubles as Pacific's top team of Jonathan Nguyen and Dawson Hose beat Seth Lee and Rogue Stone 8-6 in the top doubles flight and Alexander Kinoshita and Aidan Rooney beat Cameron Paulsen and Haven Hepton 8-3.
 
Matous Young and Alexander Rosenquist got Linfield on the board at No. 3 doubles, with an 8-3 win over Ryley Chang and Joshua Matabuena to resist a doubles sweep by the Boxers.
 
Young and Rosenquist's win snapped a five-match skid for Linfield's No. 3 doubles team.
 
SINGLES
The top flight of the day proved to be a battle between Lee and Matabuena, a three-set affair lasting 2:42.
 
Matabuena took the first before Lee responded to handily take the following two to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, bringing the match score even at 2-2 and snapping a three-match losing streak for Linfield's top individual.
 
Pacific regained the lead at No. 2 singles with Nguyen beating Stone 6-4, 6-1 before the Wildcats responded to tie the score again by Rosenquist dismissing Hose 6-4, 6-3. It was Rosenquist's first win in straight sets since March 2.
 
But Pacific regained the lead once more at No. 5 singles, where Rooney beat Hepton 6-1, 6-1.
 
Linfield tied the score once more at 4-4 as Abhi Acharya beat Lucas Fuhrmann in straight sets, but both sets having to include an extra game as Acharya won 7-5, 7-5, setting up the No. 4 flight between Paulsen and Kinoshita with the match on the line.
 
Evenly skilled, Paulsen and Kinoshita battled through three sets for nearly three-and-a-half hours. Kinoshita took the first 7-6 before Paulsen took the second with an identical score.
 
But it was Kinoshita who ultimately came out on top in the third to lift the Boxers to victory, winning 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 to set the final match score at 5-4.
 
NEXT
Linfield wraps up the regular season next Saturday, April 13 in McMinnville, hosting the Lewis & Clark Pioneers (7-4, 2-2).
 
The match will serve as Senior Day, with the Wildcats looking to send off Seth Lee, their lone 2024 graduate as an academic junior graduating early, with a win in his final match in McMinnville.
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