Box ScoreWHITTIER, Calif. – Pacific did not have ending to their southern California road trip that they hoped for Thursday as the Boxers found themselves on the losing end of a 6-3 men's tennis loss to UC Santa Cruz in a match played at Whittier College's Richard Ettinger Tennis Courts.
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"It was a tough day," Head Coach
Brian Jackson said. "We dug a huge hole for ourselves in doubles and we didn't have enough in the tank to come back. (UC Santa Cruz) is a very good team and one we would certainly like to play again."
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The Banana Slugs (5-8), ranked No. 7 in the latest ITA Division III Men's Rankings, took early command by sweeping the three doubles matches. Max Littlejohn and Kyle Richter opened with an 8-6 victory over
Brennan Faith (So., Redondo Beach, Calif.) and
Grayson Frazier (Sr., La Canada, Calif.) in the No. 1 match. Derek Levchenko and Chad Stone took an 8-1 decision from
Giancarlo Battaglia (Sr., Thousand Oaks, Calif.) and
Jason Voss (Sr., Jamul, Calif.) at No. 2 while Chetan Munugala and Adrian Sirovica collected an 8-0 shutout from
Clark Wininger (So., San Francisco, Calif.) and
Oscar Wight (Fr., Adelaide, Australia) at No. 3.
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In singles, Battaglia surged for the 6-1, 6-2 win over Littlejohn at No. 1. Faith had come back from a set down to force a third set in the No. 2 match against Stone, but Stone retired before the third set began to give Faith the win.Â
Reuben Mulhern (So., Boise, Idaho) had the Boxers' third win in singles, coming back from a set down to beat Munugala 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.
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Richter gave UC Santa Cruz a win a singles with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Frazier at No. 3. For a was a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) winner over Wininger at No. 4 and James Soper collected a three-set win over
Josh Bernstein (So., Novato, Calif.) at No. 5.
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Pacific finished their five-match southern California road trip with a 2-3 record and enter the final portion of the regular season with a 10-4 record. The Boxers will play their remaining five regular season matches on the road, beginning Friday at George Fox.
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