PORTLAND, Ore. – The Wildcat men's tennis team saw its season end Sunday with a 4-3 loss at Lewis & Clark.
After an impressive start for the 'Cats (5-16, 5-9) in doubles they were only able to get two singles wins against a River Otters (9-10, 9-5) team that solidified a third-place finish in the Northwest Conference standings.
Linfield ends the season with four straight losses against NWC opponents, all with final scores of 4-3.
"Remember the fad about 'six-seven?'" said head coach
Todd Mansfield. "Well, I never want to hear that again and honestly, I don't want to hear '3-4' again either."
Despite missing the postseason Linfield's five wins are the most for the program since 2017 and the most against conference foes since 2011.
"Overall, this season and the 3-4 results against the second, third, fourth and fifth place teams in our league shows just how far we have come and give us all more determination to flip the script next year and be on the winning side. I have the recruits to do it, now we just have to put it all together."
DOUBLES
It was an impressive start for Linfield in doubles with early leads in multiple sets on their way to taking the match's first point.
"Such a great start," said Mansfield. "We came to play and felt great after taking the doubles point. I knew we had what it would take to win this match."
Brooks Lerfald and
Zac Nakajima, the No. 8 team in Division III's West region by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, started the morning positively for Linfield with a 6-4 win at No. 1 against top River Otter duo Noah Sutin and Kai Wills, ending the season with a team best 12-7 record as the Wildcats' lead tandem all season.
Lewis & Clark evened the doubles slate at a win apiece at No. 3 as Arnav Bishnoi and Wade McDermott beat
Alexander Rosenquist and
Nick Owens 7-5, but Linfield clinched thanks to a tiebreak win by
Joey Henderson and
Cameron Paulsen, picking up their eighth win of the year by outlasting Spencer Loucks and Kaden Sigurdsson 7-6 (6-3) at No. 2.
SINGLES
The River Otters evened the score as Bishnoi beat Henderson 6-2, 6-1 at No. 4 to start singles. But it was his doubles partner, Paulsen, giving the 'Cats the lead again with a 7-6 (7-4) at No. 3 against Wills.
Linfield moved towards the verge of clinching after an impressive three set win by Lerfald at No. 2, completing a 2-0 day to close out his season with a long winding 6-7 (3-7), 6-0, 6-3.
It was Lerfald's sixth win of the year, with three apiece in each of the top two spots in the lineup.
"Brooks played phenomenally and to get to see his opponent smash his racket mid match out of frustration was crazy," said Mansfield. "But I knew this was how Brooks does it. He ended his season a great note."
But Lewis & Clark managed to mount its comeback shortly after, benefitting from Nakajima being forced to retire in the third set of the No. 1 match against Sigurdsson due to cramping, a frequent issue for the senior in recent weeks.
The River Otter No. 1 took the first frame before Nakajima earned a win in a grueling second set comeback, but then had to retire four games into the third, the match line reading 6-1, 5-7, 4-0 for Sigurdsson.
"Zac impressed me with his fight," said Mansfield. "Down 6-1, 5-2, he showed us his grit which I thought he was going to do, but his body betrayed him again. Those darn cramps. Credit to Kaden for hanging in there. That's tennis."
From there Lewis & Clark tied the match at 3-3 as McDermott beat Rosenquist 6-3, 6-3, before the River Otters clinched victory to close out the regular season with junior Bridger Galyardt defeating freshman
Gavin Orozco 6-1, 6-2 at No. 6.
