Tyler Morrill

Sports editor

The women’s and men’s tennis teams are peaking at just the right time with the Northwest Conference championships coming up         April 18.

The women’s team beat Lewis & Clark College, 6-3, April 4 in Portland. The next day they soundly beat Pacific University in a 9-0 meeting. The men’s team shut out both opponents with a 9-0 win over Lewis & Clark, on the same day in McMinnville, and repeated the feat Saturday in Forest Grove against Pacific.

Up next for the women is a trip to Salem to take on  Willamette University on April 11. The last time these teams met, Linfield dominated, 8-1. On April 12, the women have a home stand as both Pacific Lutheran University and George Fox University come to McMinnville.

The ’Cats will start against George Fox at 11 a.m., then get going again at 3:30 p.m. against P.L.U. The men’s team has one matchup this week against the Lutes in Tacoma, Wash.

With the season winding to a close, both have been highly successful in the last few weeks. The women have not lost an NWC match all season, and the men’s team has won six of its last seven NWC matches.

The women’s team has three conference matches left before the conference championships, and holds the top spot in the standings with a  record of 9-0. The men are in third place behind Whitman College and P.L.U. Both schools are in a race for first, but Whitman has a big lead with its 15-0 record.

The women have now pushed their NWC winning streak up to 94. As impressive as the streak is, the team is trying not to focus on it.

“Of course we would like to continue the streak for as long as possible,” senior Kelli Sides said. “But all streaks come to an end eventually, so we try to focus on each individual match and not on records.”

Linfield made it a season sweep, adding to their 7-0 sweep back on March 1. The ’Cats didn’t give one match up to the Boxers this time around, going 9-0. Linfield won each set decisively, taking straight sets in each singles match. The momentum stayed hot through doubles play.

Linfield only gave up two points in three matches, shutting Pacific out in the last two matches to end the day.

One of the best moments of the day was when freshman Andrea Peterson defeated Pacific’s Leslie Nguyen to record her first conference singles win.

Friday’s matchup between the women and Lewis & Clark pitted two of the conference’s top teams together. The Pioneers were tied with Whitman for second place in conference and this match would have kept them in the race with Whitman.

The ’Cats had no intentions of helping the Pioneers stay in contention and gave them their fourth conference loss of the season. The    April 4 loss was the second time Linfield defeated Lewis & Clark.

Back on Feb. 29, Lewis & Clark gave Linfield a tough battle, forcing the ’Cats to play from behind for the majority of the competition. The Pioneers won the first three matches, and Linfield played catchup the rest of the way.

In their second meeting, the ’Cats again got off to a slow start as seniors Kasey Kuenzli and Kelli Sides lost their matches, giving Lewis & Clark an early 2-0 lead.

The men played as close to perfect as a team can get, beating both Pacific and Lewis & Clark by a combined 18-0. The ’Cats didn’t give up a single set to either team.

“It was a good feeling to get two strong wins toward the end of the season like that,” junior Rich Minice said. “Now is the perfect time to get hot and I think we will prove that in the conference championship.”

When the ’Cats played Pacific on April 5, Linfield easily swept the Boxers. Freshman Mark Magdaong and junior Luke Rembold both played strong in the singles matches, giving up only two points in two sets. Minice had a tough time putting away Pacific’s Aaron Shapiro in the sixth and final singles match.

After losing the first set, 2-6, Minice came back to win the second set with a score of 6-4.

In the deciding set he pushed Shapiro all the way to 11-9 to win the match.

The season is getting close to the end, and both teams are making a push to the playoffs.

The women’s undefeated record keeps them atop the standings, but Whitman is close behind. The men’s team is in third but hold an impressive 10-4 record.

“If we bring our best game we can be a top-10 team in the nation, and we’re looking to prove that in the conference tournament,” Minice said.

This season’s success has given the women a great lift to reaching their goal of another conference championship.

“The goal is to win conference and do well at regionals,” Sides said. “We remain undefeated in conference and have high expectations of ourselves to continue what we have already been doing.”