MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – Led by strong top of the lineup play Linfield cruised to a 6-1 win Saturday while hosting the Puget Sound Loggers for the Wildcats' first home win of the season.
Zac Nakajima earned a key upset win in the top singles flight over Jason Rowe, ranked as the tied-ninth best player in Division III's West region by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Overall Linfield (4-7, 4-4) dropped just two of the day's nine flights to the Loggers (0-10, 0-8).
"I don't like admitting that it took this long to get our first home win, but that happens and for us it puts us in fourth place in the league," said head coach
Todd Mansfield.
"I don't remember the last time we have been talking about fourth place and playoffs midway through the regular season in the Northwest Conference. So, I am very pleased with the growth of this team and program in the short one and a half seasons I've been here."
DOUBLES
Linfield started the day taking the doubles point by winning the top two doubles matchups.
At No. 1 Nakajima and
Brooks Lerfald continued their strong play leading Linfield's lineup with their third consecutive win, improving to 5-2 on the year against NWC opponents with a solid 6-3 win over Rowe and partner Jackson Stumpf.
Meanwhile
Cameron Paulsen and
Joey Henderson cruised to a 6-2 victory at No. 2 over Puget Sound's Gavin Dille and Tyler Blixt to help the 'Cats take te doubles point.
"I was really pleased with the way we started," said Mansfield. "We were focused, aggressive and loud. When our one and two doubles are on, it's hard to take the point away from us."
Puget Sound did pick up a win after the point had been clinched in a competitive No. 3 match that saw Sam Lowery and Vincent Unpingco beat
Gavin Orozco and
Alex Alaniz 7-6.
SINGLES
Leading 1-0, singles play started with a bang for the Wildcats with Nakajima's win against Rowe. The University of Redlands transfer, currently unranked by the ITA, faced little resistance from Rowe, a two-time all-conference honoree, to pick up a 6-1, 6-2 win, his second when playing as Linfield's No. 1.
"Jason Rowe has been a top three player in our league for his first two and a half years," said Mansfield. "Nobody has ever manhandled him like Zac did today. Zac and I spent the last week working on a few things to lift his overall game and it paid off big time."
Lerfald managed to extend the Linfield lead to 3-0 as he found similar success at No. 2, beating Stumpf 6-2, 6-3.
Soon after Paulsen clinched victory for the Wildcats at 4-0, fending off a strong effort by Dille to still win in straight sets 7-5, 6-4. The clincher was Paulsen's third straight win in singles, moving him to 5-0 on the season at the No. 3 spot.
With the match's fate sealed the Loggers picked up their lone point at No. 4 with a three-frame win for Unpingco over
Alexander Rosenquist 3-6, 6-2, 10-5, while
Joey Henderson dismissed Lowery 6-0, 6-2 at No. 5.
The day's action wrapped up with an entertaining No. 6 match where Orozco outlasted a rested Sebastian Silverstein 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 10-7 to set the final score at 6-1.
NEXT
Linfield will go for a 2-0 weekend Sunday hosting the Willamette Bearcats (1-7, 1-6) at 11 a.m.
The Wildcats then take a break from NWC action over Linfield's academic spring break, heading to California for four matches all against nationally ranked opponents with neutral-site matches against Middlebury College and University of Chicago and road matches at Caltech and Redlands.
