FOREST GROVE, Ore. – Linfield men's tennis set out to shake off summer rust in the ITA Tune-Up last Saturday, hosted by the Pacific Boxers in preparation for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division-III Men's Northwest Fall Regional Championship in Newberg.
 
Fellow Northwest Conference opponents Lewis & Clark and Willamette also participated in the tournament along with the Wildcats and host Boxers.
 
Overall, the 'Cats went 7-19 through all singles action and 2-8 in the doubles bracket, coming off a sixth place NWC finish last spring. Saturday was the first competition for Linfield under new head coach Todd Mansfield.
 
"I was proud of how the boys competed from top to bottom never gave up," said Mansfield. "There were lots of three-set tiebreakers. We realized there is more work to do but we acknowledge how far we have come in just three weeks."
 
SINGLES
Linfield got their best performance of the weekend out of senior Seth Lee, an All-NWC First Team selection last season expected to lead Linfield's lineup again this year.
 
Lee began the day facing Lewis and Clark's No. 2 player in Kai Wills before having to play the Pioneers' top singles competitor in Noah Sutin.
 
It took three sets for Lee to dispatch Wills, eventually winning 6-1, 3-6, 10-4, before comfortably beating Sutin 6-2, 6-4.
 
All third sets were played as 10-point tiebreakers.
 
Lee took his lone loss of singles action against Pacific's Aidan Rooney in a closely contested match that saw Rooney narrowly take the first set before Lee responded with a strong second. The Boxer senior eventually won in three with a 7-5, 2-6, 10-6 score.
 
Junior Brooks Lerfald saw his first action in over a year after missing his sophomore season due to injury. Lerfald fell in his first two matches to Pacific's Alexander Kinoshita and then Rooney, before responding with a 6-4, 6-2 win against Wills to secure his first win since April 2023.

"Seth proved that he is in the running for an ITA title next weekend after a great performance and it was great to see Brooks get his first win since returning from hip surgery last year," said Mansfield.
 
2024 second team all-league selection Rogue Stone struggled through his first match, falling to Kinoshita 6-3, 6-4, and dropped the opening set of his second match, against Lewis & Clark's Matt Chio but forced Chio to "win by two" in the second with a final score of 6-1, 7-5.
 
Stone was able to shake his pair of losses to end his day with a win against Pacific's Jonathon Nguyen, 6-4, 6-3.
 
Sophomore Nick Owens split his two matches of the day, beginning with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Willamette freshman Zack Olander, before losing to Pacific senior Josuha Matabeuna 6-2, 6-4.
 
Senior Cody Pickar also left Saturday with a split, defeating Willamette's Adam Son 7-6, 6-1, then falling to Pacific's Brandon Pham in three sets 6-4, 3-6, 10-5.
 
Sophomore Tommy Gabrielsen went 1-1 as well, narrowly falling in three sets to Pacific's Ethan Kleinman 7-6, 2-6, 10-7 before cruising to a 6-4, 6-0 win over Willamette's Luca Casano.
 
DOUBLES
Linfield's top duo of Lee and Stone, which posted an 8-5 record at the top of the ladder last year, did not register a win in their two matches of the day despite grinding out their second contest, eventually falling to Pacific's Nguyen and Dawson Hose 8-7, dropping the tiebreak 11-9.
 
Sophomore/senior combination Owens and Pickar handily took their first match 8-2 over Willamette's Jake Freeland and Andre Leif, before losing by tiebreak to Pacific's Pham and Lucas Fuhrmann 8-7.
 
Sophomore duo Gabrielson and Wyatt Zagyva also went 1-1 on Saturday, dismissing Freeland and Leif 8-2, then losing to another Bearcat team in Casano and Baily Livengood 8-5.
 
NEXT
The Wildcats will take on competition from across the NWC next weekend at the ITA Fall Regional, hosted 2024 conference champion George Fox on both Saturday and Sunday.
 
Next weekend's competition will serve as data for the ITA's D-III National and Regional rankings. Neither fall competition applies to career statistical records.