SPOKANE, Wash. - The individual matches were close, but the final team score was not as visiting Linfield defeated Whitworth 8-1 in a Northwest Conference men's tennis match on Saturday. Linfield (7-2 overall, 7-1 NWC) swept the three doubles matches, though all three were close. Walt James and Brent Kingzett defeated Michael Shelton and Joe Wales 8-5 at #1 after the Pirates rallied from a 5-1 deficit to tie the set. Henry Williams and Collin Zalewski led much of #2 doubles before the Wildcat tandem of Nick Ruess and Ward Van Mens rallied to win 8-6. Luke Rembold and Mark Madaong held off Whitworth's Kellen Oetgen and Collin Barrett to win 8-5 at #3 doubles. Shelton gave Whitworth its only point when he rallied from behind to defeat Ruess 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 at #1 singles. Kyle Anderson edged Wales 7-6, 7-6 at #2 singles and Van Men knocked off Zalewski 7-6, 6-3 at #3. Tal DeWitt defeated Oetgen 6-1, 6-7, 1-0 (10-5) at #5 singles in the only other three-set match. Magdaong defeated Williams 6-1, 6-2 at #4 and Mark Kaufman defeated Barrett 6-4, 6-2 at #6. |
