NEWBERG, Ore. - With a 26-6 record over the last two-and-a-half years against Northwest Conference opponents, the George Fox University Bruins have figured out how to handle just about every other men's tennis team in the league, save one - the perennial champion Whitman College Missionaries.

Saturday afternoon, playing on their own campus courts for the first time this season due to wet grounds every other time, the Bruins were unable to solve the Missionaries' mystique once again as the visitors from Walla Walla, Wash., made off with a 9-0 win, defeating George Fox for the second time this season.

The Missionaries had relatively little trouble in the doubles.  Colton Malesovas and Andrew La Cava took an 8-5 victory over the Bruins' Justin McClain and Chris Lilley at No. 1, Jake Hoeger and Andy Riggs blanked Chace Stalcup and Matt Deming 8-0 at No. 2, and Steven Roston and James Rivers scored an 8-2 win over Mitchell Miyashiro and Nick Grafton at No. 3.

Several of the singles were more competitive. Grafton forced a third set at No. 6, falling 6-2, 2-6, 1-0 (10-4) to Rivers, and Lilley had a nailbiter that was the last match to finish as he was edged by Roston 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) at No. 2.  McClain gave La Cava a good run before dropping a 7-5, 6-3 match at No. 1.  Stalcup nearly pulled off a first-set win against Riggs at No. 3 before the Missionary took a 7-6 (7-4), 6-0 win after Stalcup suffered several cuts on his racquet hand from running full tilt against the chain-link fence around the George Fox courts.

Whitman rounded out its win with Peter Jivkov defeating Miyashiro 6-1, 6-0 at No. 4, and Hoeger downing Any Tweet 6-3, 6-1 at No. 5.

George Fox, ranked 12th in the NCAA Division III's Wet Region, is now 8-3 overall and 6-2 in the conference, in third place a game behind Pacific University. Whitman, ranked 4th in the region and 14th in the nation, is now 11-3 overall and 8-0 in the league.

NEXT: George Fox plays its final home match of the season Friday against Willamette University in Salem, Ore., at 3:00 p.m. … Whitman goes to Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash., Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.