Jacob Peterson

For the Review

Senior Molly Nelson has won six of her last seven matches—four straight— helping the women’s tennis team to two easy wins over the past week.

The men have also seen tremendous success this week, pushing their consecutive Northwest Conference win streak to four with a 9-0 blasting of George Fox University.

“We are feeling good after a rocky start,” junior Nick Ruess said. “We are beginning to see that it takes effort to pull out our matches.”

On March 8, the women’s team traveled to Newberg to take on George Fox.

After taking two of the three doubles matches, the ’Cats stormed through the singles matches. With wins by senior Kasey Kuenzli and freshmen Sophie Larson, Sarah Watanabe and Sarah Click in the No. 1 through No. 4 matches, Linfield sealed the victory with two games left.

Both Kuenzli and Click swept their matches, 6-0, 6-0. The ’Cats won 6-3, improving their record to 8-3, 8-0 NWC, and putting them at No. 6 in the region.

The previous day, Linfield found itself firing on all cylinders as it took care of the Pacific Lutheran University Lutes in Tacoma, Wash.

Duo Kuenzli and Larson got the ’Cats off to a great start in the No. 1 doubles match, easily handling Lutes senior Erika Feltus and sophomore Ashley Coats, 8-4. Linfield took all three doubles matches.

In the singles competition, it was Nelson leading the way in the No. 4 match with her dominant performance over sophomore opponent Ashley Brooks, 7-5, 6-1.

Nelson lost her first two matches of the season, but has been hot since, winning in style with blowouts and nail biters. She is currently 6-3.

The men’s tennis team dominated the visiting Bruins on March 8, 9-0, to extend their record to 5-6, 5-3 NWC.

No. 1 Ruess burned his competitor, junior Ralf Schulz, 6-1, 6-0, in the first singles match.

The rest of the matches were similar in pattern as sophomore Kyle Anderson, senior Wesley Gabrielsen and freshmen Tal DeWitt and Brad Henson easily won their respective matches.

“Players are more dedicated,” Ruess said. “We are working hard in practice and have our priorities straight.”

The only close match of the day was between Linfield junior Luke Rembold and Bruin senior Jordan Vargus.After easily taking the first match, Rembold lost the tiebreaker, forcing a third game.

Through it all, Rembold emerged the victor, 6-2, 6-7 (2-7), 10-8.

Both teams have busy weekends. The women play at home at 11 a.m. March 15 against Puget Sound University.

On March 17 and 18, the women travel to Santa Cruz, Calif., to challenge the University of California-Santa Cruz and Hardin-Simmons University.

The men play against Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., on March 15 at noon before trying to avenge an early season 5-4 loss to Willamette University at home the following day. The match begins at 1 p.m.