Box Score
VANCOUVER, Wash. – Once the Pacific and George Fox men's tennis teams were able to get onto the court, any court that would have them, the highly anticipated match turned out to be every bit as competitive as expected.
In the end, it came down to the final singles match to break a 4-4 draw, as
Eric Furuya (Sr., Portland, Ore.) defeated Andy Tweet 6-2, 6-4 in the No. 6 flight to give the Boxers a 5-4 victory over the Bruins. With the win late Sunday night, Pacific assumes sole possession of second place in the Northwest Conference with a 7-1 record, one game behind first-place Whitman. George Fox slipped to 5-2 in conference with the loss, tied for third place with Whitworth.
Sunday's match was originally scheduled for Saturday in Newberg, but poor weekend weather forced the postponement and eventual relocation to Club Green Meadows in Vancouver, Wash.
The Bruins won two of the three doubles matches, but Pacific had the edge in singles, winning four of the six flights. The Boxers got wins in both No. 1 flights as
Troy Zuroske (So., Richland, Wash.) defeated Preston Mann 6-3, 6-4 in singles and combined with
Giancarlo Battaglia (Fr., Sherman Oaks, Calif.) to knock off Mann and Shawn Aldrich 8-5 in the first doubles match. The Bruins threatened to make it a sweep in doubles, but Pacific's top team was able to battle back from two breaks of serve to win.
It was a winning day all around for Pacific's No. 1 combo as Battaglia got past Justin McClain 7-5, 6-4 in No. 3 singles. Aldrich was able to rebound from his doubles loss by sweeping past
Spencer Hing (Sr., Phoenix, Ariz.) 6-2, 6-4, handing the Boxers' No. 2 singles player his third consecutive loss.
Hing and
Scott Kawamura (Jr., Aiea, Hawaii) dropped an 8-3 decision to McClain and Peter Brown in No. 2 doubles and the Bruins took a 2-1 lead after their No. 3 doubles team of Drew Milton and David Munoz topped Pacific's
Brandon Schlack (Fr., Long Beach, Calif.) and
Kolin Wong (Jr., Captain Cook, Hawaii) 8-4.
Schlack finally met his match on Sunday. After winning every set so far this season against NWC competition, the Boxer freshman fell 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 to Milton in the No. 4 flight, dropping his overall singles record to 7-2. Schlack's only other loss in singles this year came against Division I Seattle University on Feb. 19.
Schlack's loss evened the match at 4-4 with only the No. 6 singles match left to complete. Fortunately for Pacific, “The Rock” took care of business to secure the biggest win of the season for the program.
“Eric [Furuya] has been a great anchor for us for years,” said head coach
Brian Jackson, “and he has so much experience winning deciding matches.”
Both Furuya and Kawamura improved to 7-2 on the season, as Kawamura defeated Munoz 6-2, 6-4 in No. 5 singles.
Pacific is now 7-2 overall heading into a trip to Florida with the women's team this week. The Boxers will be in Orlando for matches Thursday, Friday and Saturday. First up will be Colby College on Thursday, followed by Grinnell Friday and Northwestern Ohio on Saturday morning. George Fox is 6-7 overall and will be off until a trip to Willamette on Friday, March 30.
