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.