NEWBERG, Ore. - Despite playing short-handed all season long, the George Fox University Bruins had not been shut out in any of their first three Northwest Conference women's tennis matches until they ran into the Linfield College Wildcats, who handed their Yamhill County rivals a 9-0 whitewashing Thursday afternoon here at the GFU campus courts.

The Bruins made a serious bid to keep their non-shutout string intact in the No. 1 doubles match, Molly Beaumont and Mollee Robinson taking a 6-4 lead before the Wildcats' Sarah Watanabe and Sarah Click rallied to pull out a 9-7 victory.  Linfield's Kirstie Franceschina and Sophie Larson cruised past Allie Michelotti and Cara Griffith 8-0 at No. 2 doubles, and the No. 3 doubles was forfeited to the Wildcats due to the absence of a sixth player for George Fox.

Robinson gave the Wildcats' Larson a run for her money in the No. 2 singles match as they split sets, Larson winning the first set 7-5 before Robinson took a 6-2 win in the second set.  In the tie-breaker, Larson edged Robinson 10-8.

The rest of the singles matches were taken with relative ease by Linfield, with Sallie Katter over Beaumont 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1; Click over Michelotti 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3; Kiana Nip over Griffith 6-2, 6-0 at No. 4; and Franceschina over Liliya Abildayeva 6-1, 6-3 at No. 5.  The Bruins defaulted the No. 6 singles.

Georg Fox (0-5, NWC 0-4) plays the second of a five-match home stand Friday at 2:30 p.m. against Pacific University in conference action.  Linfield (5-2, NWC 5-2) hosts Pacific Lutheran University in an NWC match Friday at 3:30 p.m.