McMINNVILLE, Ore. - Ending an 18-match losing streak to their Yamhill County rivals, the George Fox University Bruins scored a 5-4 upset of the Linfield College Wildcats, ranked No. 9 in the NCAA Division III West Region, in Northwest Conference men's tennis action Tuesday afternoon here at the Linfield Tennis Center's indoor courts.

The Bruins dropped the No. 1 doubles match as the Wildcats' Mark Magdaong and Brent Kingzett downed Scott Barnett and Preston Mann 8-4, but the visitors took the other two doubles in epic fashion.  Peter Brown and Josiah Jackson evened the match with a 9-8 (8-3) win over Cody Levien and Zachery Lyons at No. 2.  Then, at No. 3, the Wildcats' Tal DeWitt and Tim Wagar took a 7-6 lead in the tiebreaker of an 8-8 match, but the Bruins' Justin McClain and Andy Tweet swept the next three points for a stunning 9-7 win of the pro set.

Linfield regained the upper hand by winning the Nos. 1-2-6 singles while the Bruins won at No.3 before Nos. 4 and 5 took the courts.  Wildcat winners were Magdaong over Barnett 7-5, 6-4 at No. 1, Levien over Brown 6-0, 6-4 at No. 2, and Wagar over Nolan Staples 6-1, 6-3 at No. 6.  The Bruins' win came from Mann over DeWitt 7-5, 6-2 at No. 3.

Down 4-3 as they took the courts for the final two matches, the Bruins came through with a 6-2, 6-3 win by McClain over Lyons at No. 4, and a 6-2, 6-4 victory by Jackson over Kingzett at No. 5.  The win was the Bruins' first over the Wildcats since a 4-3 triumph on March 28, 2000, in Newberg.

“I'm running out of adjectives to describe these guys and what they have accomplished thus far,” said second-year men's tennis coach Neal Nintemann, pointing to earlier wins over the University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran University, teams the Bruins had never beaten, along with the Linfield victory. 

“If you had told me we'd beat Linfield without our top player, Scott Barnett, winning either singles or doubles, I'd have said 'No way!', Ninteman continued, “but the middle of our lineup came through big-time.  Preston, Josiah, and Justin played some absolutely beautiful singles to pull us through today, but really, we've had a complete team effort - every player has contributed to our victories.”

George Fox improved to 4-1 overall and 3-1 in the conference with the win, moving into second place in the NWC standings.  Linfield slipped to 2-2 overall and in the conference, tied for fourth.

NEXT: George Fox was scheduled to host Willamette University Friday, but in light of expected wet weather, the teams have agreed to play each other on an off-day during a simultaneous trip to southern California on their March 19-26 spring break.  The date and time has not been determined ... The Bruins' next match will be Saturday as they host Pacific University at 1:00 p.m. at the GFU campus courts (or at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center in Beaverton, Ore., same time, if the weather is bad) ... .  The Wildcats are to visit Pacific Friday at 4:45 p.m. in a match at the Club Green Meadows in Vancouver, Wash.