MCMINNVILLE, Ore. - Linfield men's tennis announced its homecoming with a bang Saturday beating the Whitworth Pirates 4-3 in the Wildcats' first match in McMinnville in nearly a month.
 
The win was the first for the 'Cats against the Pirates since 2019. Linfield improved to 3-8 in Northwest Conference play to move up to sixth in the league standings.
 
"There are moments in a season that as a coach, you wait for," said head coach Todd Mansfield. "These are the ones that show your team that the hard work has paid off. Today was that day."
 
The day was highlighted by the Wildcats sweeping doubles competition for a second consecutive match while Brooks Lerfald, Alexander Rosenquist and Cameron Paulsen all went unbeaten on the day.
 
"Having lost to the Pirates 6-1 on their courts, for us to sweep doubles, clinch the match 4-0 and dominate shows how much we have improved over the course of the season," said Mansfield. "I attribute a lot of that to our spring break trip against the SCIAC teams."
 
Whitworth fell to 5-6 in the NWC. The Pirates had won three of their prior four matches going into Saturday.
 
DOUBLES
Rogue Stone and Lerfald, back in the lineup after missing Linfield's last math due to illness, set the tone for the 'Cats early on with an efficient 6-3 win at the top of the ladder over the Pirates' No. 1 team of Matthew Morrison and Ryan Ashley.
 
It was a team-leading sixth win of the year for Lerfald and Stone as Linfield's top duo and their fourth in the last six matches.
 
Their teammates clinched the day's doubles point and the doubles sweep minutes later, both by scores of 6-4, with Abhi Acharya and Alexander Rosenquist beating Matthew Froslan and Colby Cinqmars at No. 2 and Matous Young and Cameron Paulsen dispatching Matthew Hossack and Easton Weir at No. 3.
 
It was the third win of the season for both Wildcat tandems.
 
SINGLES
All three of Linfield's singles wins came in commanding fashion with Lerfald, Paulsen and Rosenquist, all winning in straight sets to lead the 'Cats to victory.
 
Rosenquist added to Linfield's 1-0 lead with a 6-1, 6-3 win against Froslan at No. 4, for his second consecutive win. It's the first time he's posted back-to-back singles wins this season.
 
Paulsen put Linfield on the brink of victory with his team-leading sixth win of the season, taking the No. 3 match 6-0, 6-3 against Weir. Five of his wins have come against conference opponents.
 
Lerfald's win ended up being the clincher for the 'Cats, finishing not long after Paulsen. He outlasted Morrison 6-4, 6-1 to win the day for Linfield. It was the junior's second unbeaten day since stepping into the role of No. 1 singles player at the beginning of the season.
 
"Playing number one on any team is not easy in this conference," said Mansfield. "Brooks has taken his fair share of hits so far, so to come back and beat Matt Morrison soundly in straight sets is that win I have been hoping he would get. On top of that it clinched the win, that was a big deal and well deserved."
 
The final three flights of the day ended in losses for Linfield. At No. 6 Cinqmarks beat Pickar 6-2, 6-4, while the final two matches ended in tiebreak.
 
At No. 2 singles Ashley beat Stone 6-1, 7-6 (7-3), and at No. 5 Hossack beat Acharya in a third-set tiebreak after the two traded seven-game wins in the first two frames. Hossack won by a final score of 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 10-7.

NEXT
The Wildcats are back at home tomorrow, Sunday April 5, with a tough test hosting the Whitman Blues, scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Whitman leads the NWC with a 10-1 conference record and are ranked No. 7 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Division III "West" Region rankings.
 
Next weekend Linfield plays its final road match of the year at Pacific on April 12 before wrapping up the season at home against Willamette on the following day. Read Full Article