College Tennis News - 'Sandwich' match leaves Wildcats unfulfilled

McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Sandwiching their only points at the top of the doubles ladder and the bottom of the singles order, the Linfield Wildcats were defeated 7-2 by the Lewis & Clark Pioneers Saturday in a Northwest Conference men’s tennis match at the Linfield Tennis Center.

Lewis & Clark scored its first dual-match victory of the young season, improving to 1-2 overall and 1-1 in the NWC. Linfield was left searching for its first win, falling to 0-2 with its second NWC loss in as many days.

“Every match we play presents a challenge for us,” said Wildcats coach Carl Swanson. “We need to stand in, engage, and compete.”

Linfield’s No. 1 doubles duo of Zachery Lyons (Sr., Vancouver, Wash.) and Micah Roos (Soph., Port Angeles, Wash.) held on for a 9-7 win over L&C’s leading tandem of Kevin Ross and Daniel Hahm.

The Pioneers fashioned matching 8-4 decisions in the next two doubles flights. Carter Gee-Taylor and Scott Monismith downed Linfield’s Joel Trousdale (Soph., Hillsboro, Ore.) and Lukas Kleinman (Soph., Vancouver, Wash.) at No. 2, and Ryotaro Tokura and Lucus Fodor topped the Wildcats’ freshmen pairing of Tim Hawkins (Fr., Boise, Idaho) and Alex Mangan (Fr., Klamath Falls, Ore.) at No. 3.

Mangan produced Linfield’s only singles point, winning 6-4, 6-4 over Fodor at No. 6. The remainder of the singles matches went the Pioneers’ way, however.

Ross carved out a 6-2, 7-5 win over Lyons in the No. 1 flight, while Gee-Taylor cruised past Roos, 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2. Hahm defeated Trousdale by the identical score at No. 3 and Monismith downed Kleinman 6-3, 6-0 at No. 4. Tokura managed a 6-3, 6-3 decision over Hawkins at No. 5.

“Zach and Micah showed good resilience in pulling out a come from behind win with quite a few momentum changes and Alex did a great job in singles with good focus and energy,” said Swanson.

COMING UP: The schedule doesn’t appear to get any easier for the ‘Cats as they host defending NWC champion Whitman at 4 p.m. Friday. Two days later, Linfield visits George Fox for a 1 o’clock match.