Box ScoreFOREST GROVE – A hard fought sweep of the doubles flights led Pacific to an easy 8-1 victory over Whitworth Saturday as the Boxers opened Northwest Conference men's tennis play at the Holce Tennis Courts.
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"This was a solid win for us today," said Pacific Head Men's Tennis Coach
Brian Jackson. "The guys played well against a hungry Whitworth squad. Our doubles were huge for us. We knew that doubles was a strength of theirs and we were really focused on coming out ahead. We were very happy with the sweep, which gave our guys the freedom to play confidently."
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Brennan Faith (So., Redondo Beach, Calif.) and
Grayson Frazier (Sr., La Mirada, Calif.) opened doubles with solid victory at No. 1, scoring an 8-3 win over Drew Bingham and Shane Sandlin.Â
Giancarlo Battaglia (Sr., Thousand Oaks, Calif.) and
Josh Bernstein (So., Novato, Calif.) added an 8-5 victory at No 2 over Blake Miller and Matt Goebel while
Clark Wininger (So., San Francisco, Calif.) and
Oscar Wight (Fr., Adelaide, Australia) completed the sweep with a 9-7 win over Chris Engelmann and Drew Adams.
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The solid play continued into the singles, where Battaglia and Faith opened with straight set victories. Battaglia cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win over Bingham at No. 1 while Faith finished with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Engelmann at No. 2. Frazier prevailed in the first close match of the day at No. 2, holding off a challenge from Miller to complete the 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 win.
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Wininger survived a first set tiebreaker to knock off Sandlin at No. 4, 7-6 (3), 7-5.Â
Reuben Mulhern (So., Boise, Idaho) completed the Boxers' winning slate with a 6-3, 6-3 sweep of Adams at No. 5. Goebel earned the win for the Pirates at No. 6, beating
Jason Voss (Sr., Jamul, Calif.) 7-5, 3-7, 11-9.
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"We had a lot of good matches in singles," Jackson said. "Giancarlo played really smart and beat a player who has given him trouble in the past. Brennan secured the team win, fighting through what was not his best tennis. Overall, it was a really great team win."
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Pacific completes the weekend on Sunday, hosting defending NWC champion and No. 13 ranked Whitman at 11 a.m.
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