Monday, 02/25/2013

NEWBERG, Ore. – Getting decisive outcomes in all six singles matches, the George Fox Bruins blanked their Yamhill County neighbors, the Linfield Wildcats, 9-0 in a Northwest Conference men’s tennis match Sunday on the GFU Campus Courts.

Linfield remained winless on the season at 0-4, both overall and against NWC competition. George Fox, enjoying a resurgent season that includes a No. 11 regional ranking, elevated its season record to 4-3, including a 4-1 mark in the NWC.

The most tightly contested match of the afternoon came at No. 1 doubles, where the GFU duo of Shawn Aldrich and Chris Lilley outlasted Linfield’s top pairing, Zachery Lyons (Sr., Vancouver, Wash.) and Micah Roos (Soph., Port Angeles, Wash.), 8-6.

Justin McClain and Peter Brown of George Fox slid past Joel Trousdale (Soph., Hillsboro, Ore.) and Lukas Kleinman (Soph., Vancouver, Wash.) 8-3 at No. 2, while Chace Stalcup and Matt Deming topped the Wildcats' Tim Hawkins (Fr., Boise, Idaho) and Alex Mangan (Fr., Klamath Falls, Ore.) 8-2.

Entering singles competition trailing 3-0, the Wildcats were unable to gain any additional traction.

McClain beat Roos 6-2, 6-2 at No. 1 and Aldrich had little trouble with Trousdale, 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2. Preston Mann crafted a 6-1, 6-3 win over Kleinman at No. 3, and Drew Milton sank Linfield’s Ben Brewer (Soph., Lake Oswego, Ore.) 6-1, 6-0. Hawkins kept things reasonably close with GFU’s Andy Tweet at No. 5 before falling 6-3, 6-2, but Mitchell Miyashiro blanked the Wildcats’ Kadin Hashimoto (Jr., Sherwood, Ore.) 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6.

"George Fox controlled the tempo of the match," said Wildcats coach Carl Swanson. "but we showed some fight and played with poise."

COMING UP: Northwest Conference play continues with home weekend matches Friday at 4 p.m. against Pacific and Saturday versus Willamette starting at 1 o’clock.