WILLAMETTE 9, GEORGE FOX 0: Bruins Close Out ’09 Season with Loss to Bearcats

Box Score           

NEWBERG, Ore. - Bringing down the curtain on their 2009 season, the George Fox University Bruins put up a feisty battle but dropped a 9-0 decision to the Willamette University Bearcats in a Northwest Conference women's tennis match Saturday here at the GFU campus courts.

All three doubles matches which opened play were tightly contested, with the Bearcats pulling out all three by identical 8-6 scores.  Shannon Palmer and Jamie Slonaker conquered Mollee Robinson and Corinne Borrelli at No. 1, Fabi Dieguez and Annika Moffett topped Betsy Ann Penman and Courtney Banks at No. 2, and Kristen Dedijer and Samantha Wong overcame Shanna Lesire and Liliya Abildayev at No. 3.

Although the Bearcats won all of the singles matches in straight sets, three of them, at Nos. 3-5, were comparatively close.  Palmer downed Robinson 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1; Alyssa Morrison dropped Borrelli 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2; Abby Funabiki got past Banks 6-4, 7-5 at No. 3; Dieguez knocked off Lesire 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 at No. 4; Slonaker edged Penman 7-5, 7-5 at No. 5; and Wong mastered Lauren Miller 6-1, 6-1 at No. 6.

George Fox finished the season with a 4-16 overall record and a 3-13 mark in the conference, assured of at least a tie for seventh in the league standings, depending on what the teams behind them - the University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran University - do in their final two matches.  Willamette (7-10, NWC 6-8), currently in fifth place in the conference, visits Linfield College Friday for a 3:30 p.m. contest.