Monday, 02/25/2013

McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Defending Northwest Conference champion Whitman rolled to a 9-0 victory over the Linfield Wildcats Friday night inside Rutschman Fieldhouse.

The Missionaries (2-1, 2-0 NWC) rolled to straight-set victories in five of six singles matches and won decisively at each of the three doubles pairings.

Though the Wildcats (0-3, 0-3 NWC) remained winless on the young season, Linfield coach Carl Swanson noted signs of progress from his still developing team.

“Our team faced another good challenge today to play up a level,” said Swanson. “We are so far from where we want to be, but we took a small step forward in terms of engaging with our opponents and executing the basic balls that we are working on in practice.”

The tightest match of the afternoon came at No. 1 singles, where Linfield’s Zachery Lyons (Sr., Vancouver, Wash.) dueled Whitman’s Steven Roston to the wire before falling 7-5, 5-7 (10-4).

The remainder of the singles matches were controlled by the Missionaries. Andy Riggs downed Micah Roos (Soph., Port Angeles, Wash.) 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2, Will Huskey dropped the Wildcats’ Joel Trousdale (Soph., Hillsboro, Ore.) 6-1, 6-3 at No. 3, and Matt Tesmond of Whitman prevailed by a 6-1, 6-0 count over Ben Brewer (Soph., Lake Oswego, Ore.) at No. 4.

In other matches, Alex Noyes topped Linfield’s Lukas Kleinman (Soph., Vancouver, Wash.) 6-3, 6-2 at No. 5 and Dylan Bodet was a 6-1, 6-0 winner over Linfield’s Tim Hawkins (Fr., Boise, Idaho) at No. 6.

Tesmond and Riggs paired for an 8-3 result over Lyons and Roos at No. 1 doubles. Noyes and Roston produced an 8-2 decision over Trousdale and Kleinman at No. 2, and Huskey and Bodet defeated Linfield’s freshman duo of Hawkins and Alex Mangan (Fr., Klamath Falls, Ore.) 8-2 at No. 3.

COMING UP: The Wildcats head to George Fox Sunday for a 2 p.m. match. Should the weather not cooperate, the match could be moved to Tualatin Hills Tennis Club in Beaverton with a 12 noon start.