TACOMA, Wash. - With an 8-1
victory Friday evening here at the UPS Tennis Pavilion that
included wins in all but the No. 2 singles match, the Pacific
Lutheran University Lutes pushed the George Fox University Bruins
to the brink of elimination from the six-team Northwest Conference
men's tennis tournament coming up Apr. 16-17.
With the loss, George Fox fell to 5-13 overall and 2-11 in the
conference. The Bruins are in eighth place, two games behind
sixth-place Pacific University, with only three matches
remaining. Pacific Lutheran improved to 10-9 overall and 8-5
in the NWC, standing in fifth place, and completed a season sweep
of the Bruins.
The Lutes opened by taking all three doubles matches as Joel
Trudel and Justin Peterson downed the Bruins' Juan
Munoz and Nick Jenness 8-2 at No. 1, Scott Sheldon and
Michael Manser outdueled Scott Barnett and Pedro Munoz 8-4 at No.
2, and Brent Smoots and Taylor Dickey dropped Matthew Gardner and
Luke Pritchard 8-1 at No. 3.
Trudel edged Barnett 6-4, 6-4 at No. 1 singles before the Bruins
picked up their only win of the night, Juan Munoz battling back to
topple Peterson 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8) at No. 2. The Lutes
rolled the rest of the way as Kevin Floyd knocked off Jenness 6-3,
6-3 at No. 3; Dickey defeated Pedro Munoz 6-0, 6-1 at No. 4;
Sheldon shut out Pritchard 6-0, 6-0 at No. 5; and Brian
Higginbotham clipped Gardner 6-2, 6-3 at No. 6.
George Fox will be back at the same venue Saturday to take on
the University of Puget Sound at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Lutheran
hosts Willamette University Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
