NEWBERG, Ore. - Closing out their first season under new coach Neal Ninteman, the George Fox University Bruins were shut out 9-0 Saturday afternoon here at the GFU campus courts by a Pacific University Boxers' squad that is still in the running for a spot in the upcoming Northwest Conference men's tennis tournament.

The Boxers took three close doubles matches to get off to a good start.  Spencer Hing and Patrick Kinghorn defeated the Bruins' Juan Munoz and Nick Jenness 8-5 at No. 1, Michael Okada and Eric Furuya knocked off Scott Barnett and Pedro Munoz 8-4 at No. 2, and Hector Alcayde and Scott Kawamua edged Matthew Gardner and Luke Pritchard 8-6 at No. 3.

The singles matches were even tighter, but Pacific pulled out the points they needed.  Okada defeated Juan Munoz 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (10-8) at No. 1 and Hing edged Barnett 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 1-0 (10-5) at No. 2 in matches that used third-set tiebreakers because the match winner had already been decided by that point in the day. 

At No. 3 singles, it was Eric Furuya over Jenness 6-3, 6-2; Michael Furuya topped Pedro Munoz 6-2, 7-6 (7-0) at No. 4; Nhat Nguyen dropped Josh Williford 6-4, 6-3 at No. 5; and Kolin Wong out-dueled Pritchard 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 at No. 6.

“As the scores show, it was a tough battle between two very evenly matched teams,” noted Ninteman.  “Like so many other matches this year, it was another one that we were just a few shots away on. There were five different tiebreakers, all of which were captured by Pacific.  Unfortunately, we just weren't able to get things going in doubles, and although the guys fought hard, we weren't able to turn the momentum back in our favor in the singles.

“It wasn't our crispest performance of the year, but we need to give credit to the Pacific players - they were well prepared, and played with a greater sense of focus and purpose.  It was a tough and somewhat unfitting end to a year full of so many positive steps forward for the program, but we'll learn from it and use it as motivation to do the things we need to do to continue to improve.”

George Fox concludes its first season under Ninteman with a 5-16 overall record - four more wins than the year before - and 2-14 in the conference, finishing eighth.  Pacific is now 6-11 overall and 5-10 in the NWC, good for sixth in the standings, and will finish its regular season by hosting Willamette University Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.  The Boxers are a half-game ahead of the University of Puget Sound in the battle for the sixth and final spot in the NWC Tournament, which takes place Apr. 16-17 at the Yakima Tennis Center in Yakima, Wash.