Crazy Eight: Boxers Finish Regular Season On A Tear
Box ScoreTACOMA, Wash. – Pacific will enter the Northwest Conference Tournament as hot as any other team in the league after finishing the regular season with their eighth straight win, a 9-0 blanking of Puget Sound at the UPS Tennis Pavilion.
Not only was the win their eighth straight, but continued a string of nine straight victories against NWC opponents. Assured of the No. 2 seed in next week's NWC Tournament (most likely to be played at Whitman), the Boxers finished the regular season 14-3 overall, 11-1 NWC.
"I am so proud of our guys this regular season," said Pacific Head Coach
Brian Jackson. "We did our best to make sure that a lot of guys got to play and gain experience. It will continue to pay off down the road. We showed some real focus to finish off matches convincingly all season and feel good going into the playoffs."
The Boxers opened the day with little challenge in the doubles. The No. 1 tandem of
Giancarlo Battaglia (Jr., Sherman Oaks, Calif.) and
Grayson Frazier (Jr., La Canada, Calif.) cruised to an 8-2 win over Chas Stewart and Myles Rivera-Flam.
Alen Suklje (Jr., Beaverton, Ore.) and
Reuben Mulhern (Fr., Boise, Idaho) scored an 8-0 shutout of Jake Peterson and John Stevens at No. 2.
Lorne Bulling (So., Corvallis, Ore.) and
Jason Voss (Jr., Jamul, Calif.) finished off the sweep with an 8-5 victory in the No. 3 flight over Daniel Deuel and Colton Wright.
In singles, Battaglia ran his season record to 8-6 with a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 1 over Deuel. Frazier knocked off Stewart, 6-2, 6-4, in the No. 2 flight while Bulling bounced back from down 6-3 in the first-set tiebreaker to beat Rivera-Flam at No. 3., 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, and completed the regular season a perfect 7-0 in singles competition.
Suklje scored a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Abe Noyes at No. 4 to improve to 6-4 on the year. Mulhern notched a 6-2, 6-0 win over Stevens at No. 5 and Voss was a 6-1, 6-3 winner over Wright and also finished the regular perfect at 4-0 in singles.
Details for the NWC Tournament will be announced early next week.
