REDLANDS, Calif. – The Linfield men's tennis team wrapped up its spring break trip to southern California on Thursday with an evening match against the Redlands Bulldogs at Coach Jim Verdieck Tennis Center.
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The Bulldogs managed to beat the Wildcats 7-0, with Linfield losing the day's doubles points despite a doubles win for
Matous Young and
Cameron Paulsen. Redlands entered Thursday ranked No. 20 in Division III by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
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In the final non-conference match of the year for both teams, Linfield fell to 2-11 while Redlands improved to 7-4. It was the Bulldogs' third win of the year against Northwest Conference programs and their second by shutout after beating Whitman 7-0 on March 21.
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DOUBLES
Young and Paulsen earned Linfield's lone win of the day in the No. 2 flight of doubles play 6-4 over Redlands' Zac Nakajima and Alexander Losani. It was the third win of the season for Young and Paulsen as a duo, all coming in the last six matches.
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Redlands took the other two doubles contests 6-3 to clinch the team score doubles point, with MJ Abarca and Cooper Whittington beating
Brooks Lerfald and
Rogue Stone at No. 1 and Alex Atwell and Luke Watson beating
Cody Pickar and
Alexander Rosenquist at No. 3.
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SINGLES
The Bulldogs were able to flex their depth to win the day with three rested players inserted into the lineup for the match's top three singles flights. At the top of the lineup a rested Vitomir Petcov was able to beat Lerfald 6-2, 6-2 while Stone gave a competitive effort to Jack Hinkle but Hinkle eventually won 6-4, 6-3.
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The trend continued at No. 3 singles where Paulsen gave a strong effort against Jack Fanshawe to force a first-set tiebreak but the Bulldog eventually pulled away to win 7-6 (6), 6-2.
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At No. 4, Whittington beat Rosenquist 6-4, 6-1 while Nakajima beat Young 6-1, 6-0 at No. 5.
Pickar played a competitive first set against Watson at No. 6, but eventually Watson outlasted the Wildcat senior to win 7-6 (4), 6-0.
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NEXT
Linfield flies back to the Pacific Northwest on Friday before quickly resuming NWC action over the weekend. The Wildcats travel to Portland Saturday to face Lewis & Clark (9-4, 6-3) at 11 a.m. before heading to Tacoma on Sunday to play Puget Sound (2-7, 2-6) at 10 a.m.
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