PARKLAND, Wash. - Pacific Lutheran broke into the Northwest Conference win column Friday with closer-than-it-looked 8-1 victory over the Linfield Wildcats at the Sprinker Tennis Center.

With the win, the Lutes are 2-2 overall and 1-2 in the conference. Linfield drops to 1-3 overall and 1-2 in the NWC.

Holding a tenuous 2-1 lead after doubles play, PLU was perfect in singles play, though two of the matches went three sets and another was decided in a super tiebreaker.

The visiting Wildcats picked up their lone point of the match at No. 1 doubles where Cody Levien and Zach Lyons earned a hard-fought 9-7 victory over Zack AhYat and Taylor Dickey. The other doubles contests were PLU runaways, however, Luke Olson and Dan Cotton beating Micah Roos (Soph., Port Angeles, Wash.) and Luke Kleinman by an 8-3 score at No. 2, and Neal Berg and Spencer Herron dumping Ben Brewer (Soph., Lake Oswego, Ore.) and Joel Trousdale (Soph., Hillsboro, Ore.) 8-2 at No. 3.

In singles play, the Lutes had a pair of easy straight-set bookend wins at No. 1 and No. 6. In the featured match, AhYat rolled past Levien, 6-1, 6-0, and at No. 6 it was Reed Gunstone handling Trousdale, 6-1, 6-3.

The four singles matches in between all offered some amount of drama. At No. 2, Cotton and Lyons went three sets before the PLU senior came out a 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 winner. At No. 4, Olson and Kleinman also went three sets with the Pacific Lutheran freshman prevailing 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Dickey needed a tiebreaker in the second set before beating Roos by a 6-2, 7-6 (5) score at No. 3 singles, and Sam Angel garnered a super tiebreaker victory over Brewer, 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (10-6) at No. 5.

COMING UP: Linfield returns to Oregon on Saturday to face the Willamette Bearcats in Salem. Doubles play begins at 3 p.m.