NEWBERG, Ore. – A critical win at No. 1 doubles by George Fox University's Molly Beaumont and Shaina Inn, who are ranked 11th in the NCAA Division III West Region, gave the Bruins an early edge that propelled them to a 6-3 win over the Willamette University Bearcats in Northwest Conference women's tennis Friday here at the GFU campus courts.

Both teams were seeking their initial win of the season.  George Fox is now 1-4 overall and 1-3 in the conference, while Willamette fell to 0-6 overall and 0-5 in the NWC.

The teams split the first two doubles to finish.  George Fox won 8-4 at No. 3 as Chantelle Hadeed and Ali Diehl defeated Emily Guimont and Mandy Carlson, and Willamette took No. 2 with Rachel Heringer and Stephanie Matsuura prevailing 8-5 over Alyssa Emoto and Krista Rey.  In both of them, the pair that won had early 6-1 leads.

The No. 1 doubles was not so clear-cut, however, as Beaumont and Inn and the Bearcats' Denise Poltavski and Sabrina Gutierrez held serve through the first four games.  Twice the Bruins broke serve to go up by two games at 4-2 and 5-3 and were serving with a chance to go up three, only to have the Bearcats break back and tie it each time.  Leading 7-6, the Bruins finally nailed down the win when a volley by Inn down the middle split the Willamette players who were also at the net for a thrilling 8-6 win.

Willamette evened the match as Gutierrez quickly dispatched Emoto 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2 singles, but Rey put the Bruins back in front with an equally-expeditious 6-1, 6-1 win over Guimont at No. 5.  Inn's 6-2, 6-3 victory over Heringer at No. 3 made it 4-2 George Fox, but Poltavski, who is ranked 12th in the West in singles, kept the visitors alive with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Beaumont.

The Bearcats appeared on their way to evening the match when Matsuura took a 4-1 first-set lead over Hadeed at No. 4, but the Bruins' player rallied to take five straight games for a 6-4 win.  She then held on to win the second set 6-4, securing the match for George Fox.  Alissandra Wittrig closed out the match with a 7-5, 6-0 win for the Bruins at No. 6 over Carlson.

“Our win at No. 1 was the key to this match,” admitted George Fox coach Rick Cruz.  “Their top two singles players (Poltavski and Gutierrez) are two of the best in the league, and we knew we'd have to rely on our depth at three through six, but nothing's for certain, so taking two of the three doubles was crucial.  I can't say enough about Molly and Shaina pulling that one out - it was huge!”

NEXT: George Fox plays the second of four straight home matches Saturday at 11:00 a.m. against Pacific University ... Willamette hosts Linfield College Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.