SPRING BREAK TRIP TO HILTON HEAD: Bruins Drop Three, Win Last One in South Carolina

Spring Arbor Box Score
Whitworth Box Score
St. Thomas Box Score
Principia Box Score

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – Ending their four-match Spring Break Trip on a winning note, the George Fox University women’s tennis team picked up an 8-1 win over the Principia College Panthers here Tuesday morning, finishing their visit to the Deep South with a 1-3 record.

The Bruins opened play on the trip with a 9-0 loss to the Spring Arbor University Cougars on Friday.  After a couple of days of sight-seeing around a number of places along the Atlantic Coast over the weekend, it was back to the courts on Monday, where they dropped a 9-0 decision to the Whitworth University Pirates that morning and an 8-1 match to the University of St. Thomas Tommies in the evening.  The Whitworth game counted as a Northwest Conference match and a “home” match for the Pirates, as the teams had already met in a Bruins’ home match on Feb. 20.

Against St. Thomas, the Bruins picked up their first individual match win of the trip when Courtney Banks knocked off UST’s Kristen Hughes 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (10-4) at No. 4 singles.

In the Principia win, the Bruins opened by taking all three doubles matches, with Mollee Robinson and Betsy Ann Penman defeating the Panthers’ Jamie Furbush and Heather Libbe 8-5 at No. 1, Banks and Shanna Lesire downing K.C. Gahlon and Marianna Hronek 8-4 at No. 2, and Lauren Miller and Liliya Abildayev taking out Caroline Korthals and Courtney Banko 8-5.

The Bruins then proceeded to secure the victory by taking the top five singles.  Robinson finished off Furbush 6-0, 6-2 at No. 1, Penman pounded Gahlon 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2, Lesire conquered Korthals 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3, Banks beat Hronek 7-5, 6-0 at No. 4, and Abildayev downed Sara MacDonald 6-1, 6-1 at No. 5.  The lone Panther win went to Jasmine Carcieri with a 6-4, 7-5 decision over Miller.

Now 3-13 overall and 2-10 in the NWC, the Bruins return to league play Friday with a visit to Yamhill County rival Linfield College, the defending conference champion, at 11:00 a.m., their last road match of the season.  The Bruins close out the regular season with their final three matches at home, starting Saturday with an 11:00 a.m. match against Lewis & Clark College.