NEWBERG, Ore. - Playing one of their more
competitive matches in years against the Northwest
Conference's standard bearer in men's tennis the past
several seasons, the George Fox University Bruins nevertheless
dropped a 9-0 decision to the visiting Whitman College Missionaries
Sunday afternoon here at the GFU campus courts.
Whitman, ranked 19th nationally in the NCAA Division III
pre-season rankings by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and
6th in the West Region, had picked up an 8-1 win in the morning
over at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore., before taking on
the Bruins. The Missionaries improved to 2-2 overall and 2-0
in the conference with their two wins, while the Bruins slipped to
2-1 overall and 1-1 in the NWC.
The Missionaries opened the contest by taking the three doubles
matches as Conor Holton-Burke and Andrew La Cava downed the
Bruins' Scott Barnett and Preston
Mann 8-4 at No. 1, Jeff Tolman and Etienne Moshevich
prevailed 8-2 over Peter Brown and Josiah Jackson at No. 2, and
Quin Miller and Matt Tesmond topped Justin McClain and Andy Tweet
8-2 at No. 3.
In singles, Barnett forced a three-set match with Holton-Burke
at No. 1. Barnett had dropped the first set 6-4 and was down
5-4 in the second when he broke Holton-Burke's serve and went
on to even the match with a 7-5 win. However, the Whitman
player won the third-set breaker 10-6.
The Missionaries swept the other singles in straight sets.
La Cava conquered Brown 6-3, 6-1 at No. 2, Bailey stopped Mann
after a close first set 7-5, 6-1 at No. 3, Sam Sadeghi knocked off
McClain 6-4, 6-2 at No. 4, Adriel Borshansky beat Jackson 6-1, 6-1
at No. 5, and Steven Roston downed Nolan Staples 6-2, 6-1 at No.
6.
“Whitman has been the team to beat for a long time, and
our goal has been to be competitive with them,” said George
Fox coach Neal Ninteman. “We certainly went a long way
toward that goal today. Scott did a great job coming back in
the second set to force a tiebreaker, and Preston gave their guy
all he could handle in the first set. I am quite pleased with
the progress we are making.”
NEXT: George Fox goes on the road for the first
time this spring next Sunday as the Bruins travel to Parkland,
Wash., to meet Pacific Lutheran University for a 2:00 p.m. match.
... Whitman visits Willamette University Monday at 1:00 p.m.
