Linfield College Team Page

FOREST GROVE, Ore. – Linfield picked up its most decisive victory of the season at Pacific’s expense, handily defeating the Boxers 8-1 Friday afternoon at the Holce Tennis Courts.

With the victory, the Wildcats (3-4, 2-2 NWC) inched closer to a .500 overall record while denying Pacific (0-5, 0-5 NWC) its first win of the year.

Freshman Synclaire Waldron assured the Boxers were not whitewashed, coming away with a three-set victory over Linfield’s Lexi Thomas (Sr., Redding, Calif.) at No. 1 singles. After going down 4-6 in the opening set, Waldron bounced back with 7-5 and 10-7 wins to claim her third career victory.

The closest Pacific came to earning another match point came in the fourth singles flight, where Lillian Do and Kwynn Ecton (Fr., Fort Collins, Colo.) traded blows before Ecton outlasted her Boxer counterpart in the decisive third set for the 6-3, 2-6, 10-4 victory.

Aside from the aforementioned loss and close call, Linfield breezed through the four remaining singles matches and all three doubles flights.

Caroline Brigham (Jr., Eagle, Idaho) blanked Rachel Mizuno 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 singles. Kaila Nip (Soph., Lahaina, Hawaii) nearly accomplished the same feat in the third flight, giving up just a single point in her 6-1, 6-0 defeat of Francesca Battaglia.

At Nos. 5 and 6 singles, Kelly Watanabe (Soph., Kirkland, Wash.) picked up a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Becky Sheller and Gretchen Jernstedt (Soph., Wilsonville, Ore.) edged Amber Craviotto by identical 7-5, 7-5 scores.

Earlier in doubles, Jernstedt and Thomas topped Waldron and Mizuno in the closest tandem match of the afternoon – the top flight – by a count of 8-6. Brigham and Ecton raced to a 8-1 victory over Do and Sheller while Nip and Watanabe downed Craviotto and Kelsey Lack 8-4 at No. 3 doubles.

UP NEXT: Linfield travels to Salem to take on Willamette at the Courthouse Tennis Club. Match time is set for 12:30 p.m.