Julia Long

Review staff writer

-photo by Jordan Jacobo/Review staff writer/photographer

Nerves of the Linfield men’s tennis team surged in southern California from April 26 to 29 at the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament.

Four fortunate members of the team joined numerous others from throughout the West in hopes of enhancing their chances at winning a bid to nationals.

Linfield head coach Carl Swanson opted to take the team’s top two men’s doubles duos, senior Wesley Gabrielsen and freshman Brent Kingzett and junior Nick Ruess and sophomore Kyle Anderson. Each player also competed in the singles draw.

The singles competition consisted of four student athletes from each school, with 64 competitors total. It commenced the morning of April 27 with promising beginnings.

Ruess triumphed over Pomona-Pitzer Colleges’ freshman John Williford, 6-1, 6-4, and Anderson captured a win from Occidental College’s sophomore Michael Kuhn with a final tally of 6-0, 7-5.

Advancing to the second round, Ruess and Anderson met their matches and were trumped by University of California-Santa Cruz’s No. 9 junior Colin Mark-Griffin and University of Redland’s No. 5 senior Eric Wager with ending scores of 6-1, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-1, respectively.

“It was a decent performance,” Ruess said. “I was very anxious. This is my first year in the number one spot on the team and I’m getting used to having that pressure of others looking up to me.”

Gabrielsen and Kingzett also competed in the singles draw, though both were defeated by Pomona-Pitzer freshman Nick Tagliarino, 7-6, 6-1, and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges’ freshman Russell Brockett, 6-1, 6-1.

The doubles competition of 32 teams ensued later the same day, yet round one of the draw saw the end of Linfield’s dual competitors.

Anderson and Ruess lost to Claremont-Mudd-Scripp’s Brockett and sophomore Michael Starr, 8-0, and Gabrielsen and Kingzett suffered defeat at the hands of Redlands’ juniors Aron Ouye and Chris Trippel.

Kingzett said he and Gabrielsen had a short run of success toward the end of their match, but it was too late to make a comeback.

“I wanted to finish the year on a high note,” Kingzett said. “I wanted to end strong because I wanted my partner to have a good last competition at college.”

Staying in Ojai until late Sunday night allowed the team to observe the other collegiate athletes as they battled for the win.

“It was a great weekend,” Ruess said. “It was cool to see that level of competition and to prove to myself that I can play with that.”

Three of the Wildcats were first-time attendees of the tournament with the exception of Gabrielsen, who will be graduating this June.

Ruess said they have hopes of improving their performance in their return to Ojai next year.

The all-conference teams were announced earlier in the week and Linfield had two men receive recognition. Ruess earned a first-team nomination and Gabrielsen won the Sportsman of the Year Award. This award is given to the athlete who competes the best while showing great sportsmanship. It is voted on by  the coaches in the NWC.