SALEM, Ore. – Aided by an injury that gave them a default win at No. 6 singles, followed by timely wins at the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 singles, the George Fox University Bruins rallied to defeat the Willamette University Bearcats 5-4 in a Northwest Conference women's tennis match Friday afternoon here at the Willamette campus courts.

The Barcats took a 2-1 lead after the doubles matches.  Sabrina Gutierrez and Denise Poltavski blanked the Bruins' Alyssa Emoto and Krista Rey 8-0 at No. 1, and Olina Cavedoni and Taylor Coggeshall won 8-3 over Shelby Arnold and Ilsa Teppo at No. 3.  In between, the Bruins took the No. 2 match 8-5, Megan Dahlberg and Ali Diehl prevailing over Emily Guimont and Alicia Sohn.

Willamette appeared to have matters well in hand as Gutierrez defeated Emoto 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) at No. 1 singles and Poltavski downed Rey 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2.  However, the Bearcats ran into trouble when Sohn was injured and unable to play her scheduled match at No. 3, forcing the rest of the lineup to move up.  With no one else available for the No. 6 singles, the Bearcats defaulted that match to the Bruins' Teppo.

However, the Bruins still needed to pick up the remaining three matches, and that they did.  Dahlberg captured the No. 3 slot with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Guimont, Diehl downed Cavedoni 6-2, 6-1 at No. 4, and Arnold topped Coggeshall 6-1, 6-4 at No. 5 to clinch the victory for the Bruins.

"We've been a little short-handed ourselves with Chantelle Hadeed and Taylor Barnes, our Nos. 2 and 3 players, out right now," pointed out George Fox head coach Rick Cruz, "but the rest of the lineup came through in fine fashion.  There was a lot of pressure on Arnold at that No. 5 spot for someone who hasn't played that much this year, and she played some of the best tennis of her life to help us pull out what was frankly an unexpected win."

George Fox improved to 7-10 overall and 3-7 in the conference, while Willamette slipped to 4-7 overall and 2-7 in the league.

NEXT: George Fox hosts Pacific Lutheran University next Friday at 4:00 p.m. … Willamette goes to Pacific University Saturday at 10:00 a.m.