By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

SALEM, Ore. -- The Willamette University men's tennis team played four highly-competitive matches in singles, but Linfield University defeated the Bearcats, 9-0, in Northwest Conference action at the WU Tennis Courts on Saturday, March 13. Linfield was victorious in one three-set match, one match decided by a super tie-breaker, and two close matches decided in two sets.

The Wildcats improved to 1-3 on the season, 1-1 in the NWC. Willamette fell to 0-3 overall, 0-2 in the NWC.

At #3 singles, Will Worth of Linfield won in three sets against Quentin Nigbur (So., Newberg, OR/Newberg HS), 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. Ethan Myers from LU and Jordan Megiveron (So., Edmonds, WA/Edmonds-Woodway HS) of Willamette, split the first two sets at #6 singles and played a super tie-breaker before Myers prevailed 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 10-7. In the #1 singles match, Fuentes Gilbert edged out WU's Andrew Kabacy (Jr., Vancouver, WA/Skyview HS), 7-5, 6-2. At #2 singles, Michael Manion won for the Wildcats against Gene Perle-Jones (Sr., Eugene, OR/North Eugene HS)m, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.

Linfield gained wins in all three doubles matches by matching 8-3 scores. In the #1 match, Manion and Cameron Ventura downed Kabacy and Perle-Jones. At #2 doubles, Worth and Myers outscored Nigbur and Andrew Kropp (So., Bend, OR/Summit HS). At #3 doubles, Gilbert and Josef Shum defeated Luke Hiserman (Sr., Monterey, CA/Pacific Grove HS) and Megiveron.

Willamette will return to action on Saturday, March 20 at Pacific Lutheran University. Match time is set for 2 p.m. (PDT) in Tacoma, Washington.