As the women’s tennis team nears the end of the season, it has yet to be defeated by any other Northwest Conference team despite its losses in non-conference matches.
The Wildcats matched up with the Pirates of Whitworth University on April 7. Traveling to Spokane, Wash., Linfield competed in nine matches, six singles and three doubles.
The first Wildcat to claim a win was senior Abby Olbrich, defeating Whitworth senior Alli Marshall. Olbrich won her first match against Marshall, 6-1. In the second match, Olbrich won 6-0.
The second win for Linfield was by freshman Kaila Nip. Facing off with Whitworth freshman Saryn Mooney, Kaila Nip won both of matches. Also winning a singles match was senior Kiana Nip, winning both her matches, 6-4.
Linfield swept the doubles competition.
First to compete were Olbrich and sophomore Caroline Brigham, who won their match, 8-4.
Sister team Kaila and Kiana Nip won 8-5, defeating Whitworth’s Steele and Mooney.
The final doubles team, made up of junior Lexi Thomas and freshman Kelly Watanabe, beat senior Claire Hemming and junior Megan Wingfield, 9-7.
Starting off the winning weekend, the Wildcats faced off with Whitman College on April 6 in Walla Walla, Wash.
Linfield won five of the nine matches, taking all three double competitions.
“This was a weekend of tough competition for us, but we pulled through and it was definitely a team effort”, Watanabe said. “We swept in doubles in both matches which I think helped our team a lot. Since we already played and defeated Whitman and Whitworth before, we played with a lot of confidence and everyone fought hard during their match.”
While the Wildcats have a spotless record in the Northwest Conference, the team lost two games March 30 and 31 while at a California competition. This puts the team’s overall record at 11-4.
In their next home match, the Wildcats will compete against the University of Puget Sound on April 13.
With the NWC tournament quickly approaching, Linfield is busy preparing.
“We are preparing for the NWC Tournament by practicing hard and doing practice matches against each other to help prepare us for the competition,” Kaila Nip said.
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Kaylyn Peterson/Sports editor
Kaylyn Peterson can be reached at [email protected].
