MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – Linfield competed well but lost 7-0 Saturday to the George Fox Bruins inside Rutschman Fieldhouse.
"We matched up well and we competed and to me, that's growth. That's all I can ask them to do right now," said head coach
Phil Whitehead. "It was tough, but I look forward to playing them again since we're only going to get better each day."
The Wildcats (0-9, 0-7) saw spirited performances at the top of doubles and in the middle of the singles lineup but failed to turn them into wins against a veteran Bruin (3-4, 3-3) squad.
"But we've got some young kids that need to learn that they need to come to work each day and try to get one percent better. We can't take any practices or drills off and we've got to go out there with the mindset that whatever we're doing we do it with purpose, intention and better than we did it last time. Hopefully the matches will turn out like that too."
DOUBLES
George Fox took a 1-0 lead on the day, taking the doubles point by securing wins at No. 3, 6-1 by Ashley Gardner and Nicole Schnurbusch against Wildcat freshmen
Gianna Molony and
Steffenie Stark, and at No. 2, where sister act Shanah and Sophie Denham beat
Sundi King and
Lyla Khlee 6-2.
Linfield saw a strong effort from
Kaitlynn Canubida and
Samantha Baltz in the top doubles contest but the junior duo eventually fell to Riley Bobkiewicz and Juhree Kizziar by a score of 7-5, allowing George Fox to sweep the day's doubles action.
"They still need to work on their communication and movement," said Whitehead about his top doubles team. "That's new because they hadn't played together in over two years before this season, but when they put it together, and they have for stretches, they're as good as any team in this conference."
SINGLES
The Bruins managed to extend their lead to three with a pair of impressive wins at the top of the ladder.
At No. 1 Canubida faced Bobkiewicz, ranked the No. 44 player in NCAA Division III and No. 11 in the West Region by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, with Bobkiewicz winning 6-2, 6-2.
It was an identical score at No. 2 where Shanah Denham beat Baltz to set the match score at 3-0. The Bruins managed to clinch victory in a long third set win by Sophie Denham against
Emily Redwood, continuing to play through injury. Denham was forced to fend off an admirable second-set comeback by Redwood to win 6-0, 4-6, 6-1.
"Emily's a warrior," said Whitehead. "She comes out and fights. The other girl hit the air out of the ball in the first set and Emily had to create her own pace, so she said 'I'll play the same game' and got back to her normal pace and that's what got her the second set, and I think she ran out of gas a bit in the third."
George Fox added to their lead with a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 4, before the Wildcat freshmen Molony and Khlee showed some fight at the bottom of the lineup.
Molony got off to a strong start but could not finish out the win at No. 5, falling via third set 10-point tiebreak, Gardner winning 4-6, 6-2, 10-2, while Khlee nearly came back to force a third set against Schnurbusch but in the end fell 6-1, 6-4.
"That's what we need, we need the bottom part of the lineup to play tough," said Whitehead. "Today was some of the best we've gotten out of that part of the lineup. That's so encouraging because when my juniors are 'on', I know we'll get points there. But we got to get points from the bottom end too and I think we're headed in the right direction."
NEXT
The Wildcats will play their next six matches on the road. Linfield travels to Portland tomorrow to face Lewis & Clark (6-3, 4-2) at 11 a.m., before visiting Puget Sound and Willamette next weekend.
Linfield then takes a break from conference play for three matches in California before resuming Northwest Conference play at home March 29.
