Box ScoreFOREST GROVE – In their hardest fought match in years with the Northwest Conference's dominant program, Pacific battled back from three close doubles losses to challenge Whitman but fell 6-3 to the No. 13 ranked Missionaries in men's tennis action at the Holce Tennis Courts.
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After dropping the doubles by a grand total of six games, the upper half of the singles bracket all picked up victories to keep Pacific in the match. It came down to the bottom of the bracket, where a trio of close matches all went the way of Whitman.
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"The men put up a heck of a fight today, but in the end the 3-0 deficit after doubles was too much to overcome," said Pacific Head Coach
Brian Jackson. "Although I felt like we let them off the hook in doubles with three matches we could have won, I was really impressed with the effort in singles to make it a match. Against a team that has been rolling in singles lately, our guys showed that we can hang with them."
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Whitman did just enough to get the critical 3-0 lead after doubles. Colton Malesovas and James Rivers got by
Brennan Faith (So., Redondo Beach, Wash.) and
Grayson Frazier (Sr., La Canada, Calif.) by an 8-6 margin at No. 1 while Petar Jikov and Jake Hoeger beat
Giancarlo Battaglia (Sr., Thousand Oaks, Calif.) and
Josh Bernstein (So., Novato, Calif.) at No. 2 by the same margin.
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Clark Wininger (So., San Francisco, Calif.) and
Oscar Wight (Fr., Adelaide, Australia) took Zach Hewlin and Phillip Locklear to the brink at No. 3, but the Missionaries' tandem prevailed 9-7.
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In singles, Battaglia battled hard against Hewlin, the reigning ITA champion from the fall, pulling out a first set tiebreaker to take the No. 1 match 7-6 (8-6), 7-5. Faith posted a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Jivkov at No. 2, 6-4, 6-4, while Frazier came back from one set down to register a 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 win over Locklear at No. 3.
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"The wins by our top three were outstanding," Jackson said. "We went into the match wanting to use our strength at No. 4 through No. 6, but the top guys really stepped up. Giancarlo played some of the best tennis I have ever seen from him. We had great play from Brennan at No. 2 as he fought through some pain to take out a very good player. Grayson was the last match on and he battled back to get the win."
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The bottom of the ladder kept their matches close. Bernstein dropped a 6-3, 7-5 match to Friedman at No. 4 while Wight just missed forcing a third set in a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) loss to Rivers at No. 6. Wininger won his first set over Robert Carter at No. 6, but watched as Carter came back to take the second set and the super tiebreaker for the 7-5, 6-7 (8-6), 10-6 win.
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With the win, Whitman improved to 6-1, 2-0 NWC. Pacific dropped to 2-1, 1-1 NWC.
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Pacific is on the road next weekend, playing at Puget Sound on Saturday and at Pacific Lutheran on Sunday.
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