PARKLAND - Pacific Lutheran opened its 2013 men's tennis team in solid fashion on Friday afternoon, defeating the visiting Linfield Wildcats, 8-1, in a Northwest Conference match played at Sprinker Tennis Center.

The Lutes started out with a sweep of the doubles action and then won five of the six singles matches.

Sam Angel and Luke Olson went to a tie-breaker to defeate Zachery Lyons and Micah Roos, 9-8 (3), at first doubles. The other two doubles matches went in straight sets as Josh Bower and Taylor Dickey defeated Joel Trousdale and Lukas Kleinman, 8-4, at second doubles, and cousins Mitch Yannello and Jake Yannello topped Tim Hawkins and Alex Mangan, 8-3, at third doubles. The Yannello cousins, both freshmen, dropped the first three games before rallying to win eight in a row.

In singles play, Bower defeated Lyons, 6-3, 7-6 (3), in the featured match. Linfield picked up its only team point when Roos topped Angel, 7-6, (2), 6-2, at second singles, but the Lutes closed out Linfield in in convincing fashion in the remaining matches. Olson beat Trousdale , 6-3, 6-0, Dickey beat Kleinman, 6-3, 6-3, Mitch Yannello stopped Hawkins, 6-1, 6-0, and Jake Yannello topped Mangan, 6-0, 6-0.

"Jumping out to a 3-0 start after doubles gave us some early confidence to build on," PLU head coach Rocky Poulin said. "Once the singles matches started you got a feel the new guys were getting settled in to a groove for the rest of the night.

"The coached enjoyed the energy and overall effort from the players."

PLU is back in action at 1 p.m. Saturday when it hosts the Pacific Boxers at Sprinker Tennis Center.

- PLU -