Boxscore

by Jimmy Chau

PORTLAND, OR.-

Senior George Allen shines in an inspired performance as the Pios fall to conference rival Linfield, 8-1.  Turning around and playing after a long road trip the night prior, Allen finds his groove to take out one of the conference's best players, Mark Magdaong, 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-5).  In a season where Allen will be consistently taking the lead and setting the example for all of his teammates to follow, he shined in his first home conference match.  Coach Gundars Tilmanis was happy to see that Allen's commitment to having a great comeback year has paid off already with a win against an All-Conference first teamer.  Linfield's strengths up and down the lineup proved to be too much for the younger Pios as Quinn Roth-Carter and Sam Franer were the only ones to muster up four games each.  Tal DeWitt, Zach Lyons and Brent Kingzett combined to only give up three total games in dominating performances.

Doubles action also heavily favored the Wildcats except for the number one doubles slot where Allen would team up with Roth-Carter to give Magdaong and Kingzett all they could handle.  Although the visitors would pull it out 8-6, the Pios were encouraged by their much stronger showing and have many things they can build on from this match.  It's going to be a steep learning curve for the Pios this year, but one match at a time, they will look to continue to build on their successes.

The Pios take on the Willamette Bearcats next week at 7 pm in Salem.