McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Playing their last
Northwest Conference game before heading to Florida for five
matches on their spring break trip, the George Fox University
Bruins dropped an 8-1 decision to their Yamhill County rivals, the
Linfield College Wildcats, in women's tennis action Friday
here at the Linfield Tennis Center.
The lone victory the Bruins picked up was at No. 2 doubles,
where Alyssa Emoto and Krista Rey hammered out an
8-3 win over Kaila Nip and Kelly Watanabe. The Wildcats won
handily at No. 1 doubles, Caroline Brigham and Mackenzie Fraser
taking down Chantelle Hadeed and Taylor Barnes 8-1, but the Bruins
nearly took a 2-1 lead in the No. 3 doubles, Megan Dahlberg and Ali
Diehl pushing the home team's Gretchen Jernstedt and Courtney
Mostul to the edge before falling 9-7.
The singles all belonged to the Wildcats, although the Bruins
did force them to a third set twice. At No. 3, Barnes
extended Watanabe to three before bowing 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. At
No. 5, with the match already decided, Dahlberg and Jernstedt went
to a third-set tiebreaker before the 'Cats player took a 6-4,
0-6, 1-0 (10-3) triumph.
Linfield swept the other four singles. Brigham defeated
Emoto 6-2, 6-1 at No. 1, Nip knocked off Hadeed 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2,
Marisa Kume rolled by Rey 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4, and Fraser downed
Diehl 6-3, 6-4 at No. 6.
George Fox fell to 4-5 overall and 2-5 in conference play with
the setback. Linfield, ranked No. 13 in the NCAA Division III
West Region, improved to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the league.
NEXT: George Fox heads for Orlando, Fla., next
week to find some non-conference competition, starting Thursday
against Virginia Wesleyan College. Also lined up on the trip
to the Sunshine State are Kalamazoo College, Luther College,
Hamline College, and Hamilton College … Linfield hosts Lewis
& Clark College Saturday in a conference contest at 11:00
a.m.