Rachel Mills
For the Review

It has been seven years since any team has defeated Linfield’s women’s tennis team in a conference match, but on March 6, the Whitman College Missionaries came dangerously close.
The Wildcats won against the Missionaries 5-4, upholding their 106 game-winning streak within the Northwest Conference.
Head coach Amy Dames-Smith said the victory was well-earned.
“We knew going in that it would be a real challenge,” she said. “But the team really came together, and we had some really good matches.”
Linfield captured the lead early in the match with victories for the No. 1 doubles team, junior Sallie Katter and sophomore Sophie Larson.
The No. 2 doubles team, sophomore Sarah Click and freshman Abby Olbrich, followed suit with an 8-2 win over Whitman junior Katie Oost and sophomore Divneet Kaur.
During the singles matches, however, the team began to struggle.
Katter, playing No. 1 singles, fell to Whitman’s only freshman, Elise Otto.
But Katter’s teammates Olbrich, Larson, and freshman Kiana Nip won in No. 2, 3 and 4 singles.
Danes-Smith said Olbrich, at No. 2 singles, beat a tough player who the team had lost to in the past, and Larson, at No. 3, was as a solid competitor.
Larson said Nip had a good match. In the first set of No. 4 singles, Nip fell when Whitman sophomore Margo Lentz posted a 4-6 victory.
Nip fought back and won the second and third sets, 6-1 and 6-0, respectively, earning a win for the overall match.
“Kiana [Nip] was rolling in her game,” Dames-Smith said. “Even though she lost her first set, she didn’t give up or stop playing. She kept trying and came back and won.”
Dames-Smith said that Nip’s match gave the team its fifth win, which was enough to capture the meet.
For a team accustomed to winning, that possibility was frightening.
Whitman, currently posting a 6-2 NWC record, fell behind Linfield in the previous season and took second in the conference.
Whitman’s advantage lies exactly where Linfield is lacking: experience. The Missionaries boast a single freshman on their roster, compared to Linfield’s five. However, Larson says the Wildcats’ youth isn’t slowing them down.
“We don’t have a lot of experience, but we have talent and athleticism; that’s what counts,” she said.
The team will rely on those factors when it faces Whitworth University on March 15.
“It is important for us to be ready to battle,” she said. “We’re just going to stick to our game and go out there and win.”