NEWBERG, Ore. – Bouncing back in fine
fashion from their first Northwest Conference men's tennis
loss of the season to nationally-ranked Whitman College the night
before, the George Fox University Bruins swept the Linfield College
Wildcats 9-0 Sunday afternoon here at the GFU campus courts,
their third win by that score in four NWC contests.
The No. 2 doubles match was the most competitive one of the day,
as the Bruins' Shawn Aldrich and Chris Lilley edge the
Wildcats' Zachery Lyons and Micah Roos 8-6. At No. 2,
it was Justin McClain and Peter Brown over Joel Trousdale and Lukas
Kleinman 8-3, while Chace Stalcup and Matt Deming, playing together
for only the second time this season, defeated Tim Hawkins and Alex
Mangan 8-2 at No. 3.
George Fox coach Neal Ninteman decided to hold Lilley, usually
his No. 3 player, out of the singles to rest the freshman, who had
picked up the Bruins' only win against Whitman Saturday night
in a third-set tie-breaking marathon that took over two hours to
complete. The Bruins were on a roll, however, and
cruised through each of the singles in straight sets, losing no
more than three games in any one set.
McClain claimed a 6-2, 6-2 win over Roos at No. 1, Aldrich
downed Trousdale 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2, Preston Mann knocked off
Kleinman 6-1, 6-3 at No. 3, and Drew Milton beat Ben Brewer 6-1,
6-0 at No. 4. Seeing their first singles action of the
season, Andy Tweet toppled Hawkins 6-3, 6-2 at No. 5, and Mitchell
Miyashiro whitewashed Kadin Hashimoto 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6.
The Bruins improved to 4-3 overall and 4-1 in the conference
with their largest margin of victory ever over their Yamhill County
rivals (the Bruins did defeat the Wildcats 7-0 in a match in 1998
at a time when doubles were still counted as one collective
point). Linfield is now 0-4 overall and in the
conference.
“Linfield is in a rebuilding mode right now,” noted
Ninteman, “but they played us hard today and never let
up. I have the upmost respect for Coach (Carl) Swanson and
his program; they've had a tremendous legacy of tennis and it
won't be long before their young team is back among the
leaders in the Northwest Conference.”
NEXT: George Fox, ranked No. 11 in the NCAA
Division III West Region, begins a string of six straight matches
away from home Friday as the Bruins visit Willamette University for
a conference match Friday at 3:00 p.m. ... Linfield hosts Pacific
University Friday at 4:00 p.m.
