LOS ANGELES – Linfield began its spring break swing against Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference teams Sunday afternoon with a 7-0 loss at Occidental at the Tiger's McKinnon Family Tennis Center.
"Even though a few of us struggled with the sunny and 86-degree weather, as a team we battled through the heat and put up a fight against a strong SCIAC team," said head coach
Phil Whitehead. "Today was a great learning experience for this team to get ready for a very good Caltech team tomorrow."
DOUBLES
Although junior
Samantha Baltz managed to return to the court at No. 1 alongside partner
Kaitlynn Canubida for the first time since sustaining an injury on March 8, the Wildcats were unable to pick up a doubles point as Occidental swept its way to a 1-0 start to the match.
Baltz and Canubida fell 6-2 to Greta Naga and Ellise Jay, while at No. 2
Sundi King and
Gianna Molony took a 6-0 loss against Nicole Anderson and Catelyn Isman. At No. 3
Lyla Khlee and
Steffenie Stark managed to win a game but eventually fell 6-1 to Lilia Tanabe and Macy McClellan.
"Doubles saw the return of
Samantha Baltz from her hand injury and although she was a little rusty, she and Kaitlynn were able to push the Occidental pair into long points and deuce games," said Whitehead. "We really need to come out with more energy and greater effort tomorrow in doubles. We need to make an impact at the beginning of the match instead of fighting uphill when we get to singles."
SINGLES
Linfield's best singles performance came from
Emily Redwood at No. 2, battling through an extended first set with Jay before the Tiger was able to pull away from the Wildcat in the second to win 7-5, 6-0.
At No. 4 Molony showed improvement on her freshman season, despite losing to McClellan 6-2, 6-1.
"Emily and Gianna both played really well," said Whitehead. "Emily built off her success versus Willamette and Gianna bounced back and raised her game up a level today. Unbelievable effort from those two."
At No. 3 singles King lost to Isman 6-0, 6-3, while Canubida fell at the top of the ladder 6-1, 6-1 to Naga.
"Both Kaitlynn and Sundi shrugged off rough first sets to bring the fight back to their opponents and push them into making errors," said Whitehead. "This is something that I preach in practice every day and it was awesome to see them beginning to embrace the concept."
Sunday's action concluded at the bottom of the scorecard with Khlee losing to Tanabe 6-2, 6-1 at No. 5 and Liliana Cano falling 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6.
NEXT
The Wildcats continues their southern California swing Monday with a trip to Pasadena for a match with the Caltech Beavers at 3:30 p.m. PDT, the No. 31 ranked team in NCAA Division III by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
They then visits Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks on Wednesday for their second meeting with the Regals this season before returning home to host Northwest Conference foe Whitworth on March 29.
