NEWBERG, Ore. – With the match knotted
3-3 and three singles left, the George Fox University hung tough
but could not pull off a Northwest Conference men's tennis
upset over the powerful Whitman College Missionaries, who are
ranked eighth in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis
Association, in a match played Saturday at two different
venues.
The battle began in the morning at the GFU campus courts, where
the Bruins put the Missionaries in a position they rarely find
themselves in by taking two of the three doubles matches.
Drew Milton and David Munoz finished off Whitman's Sam
Sadeghi and James Rivers quickly 8-1 at No. 3, and Preston Mann and
Shawn Aldrich captured a hard-fought 8-6 victory over one of the
nation's top-ranked doubles tandems of Conor Holton-Burke and
Matt Tesmond at No. 1. The Missionaries took the middle match
as Jeff Tolman and Andrew La Cava notched an 8-2 win over Justin
McClain and Peter Brown.
With rain beginning to fall, the singles were interrupted and
moved the indoor courts at the Club Green Meadows in Vancouver,
Wash., to complete. Whitman then forged ahead as Adriel
Borshansky dispatched Andy Tweet 6-1, 6-0 at No. 5 singles and
Rivers downed Milton 6-2, 6-3 at No. 4, but McClain evened the
match with a 4-6, 6-0, 1-0 (10-5) win over Holton-Burke, last
year's NWC Player of the Year, at No. 3.
With the match hanging in the balance, the tournament-tested
Missionaries were able to prevail in three tough contests as Steven
Roston dodged David Munoz 6-2, 7-5 at No. 6, La Cava conquered Mann
6-3, 6-3 at No. 1, and Tolman finished off the Bruins with a 6-2,
6-4 win over Aldrich at No. 2.
“Following up an impressive win yesterday over Whitworth,
which is a regionally-ranked team, today's match was a great
battle between two tough and talented teams that in the end came
down to a few games, even points,” observed George Fox coach
Neal Ninteman. “Our guys played their hearts out and
took one of the top teams in the nation - Whitman is ranked higher
than they have ever been before - right down to the wire.
This team is playing great tennis and really hitting our stride;
we're getting better every day and are looking forward to
building on this weekend's success in the upcoming
matches.”
NEXT: George Fox (5-6, NWC 4-2) visits Lewis
& Clark College Friday at 3:30 p.m. ... Whitman (8-3, NWC 4-0)
had a Saturday afternoon match at Pacific University at 3:00 p.m.
after playing the Bruins, then visits Linfield College Sunday at
11:00 a.m.
