WALLA WALLA, Wash. – In what one sideline observer called “possibly the greatest college tennis match I've ever watched”, the George Fox University Bruins clawed their way past the Pacific University Boxers 5-4 Saturday afternoon here at the Whitman College outdoor courts to advance to the Northwest Conference Men's Tennis Championship finals.

The Bruins, who established a new single-season record for wins in running their overall mark to 11-7, will advance to the tournament title match Sunday at 11:00 a.m. against host Whitman.  The Missionaries, who are ranked No. 8 nationally and No. 1 in the NCAA Division III West Region, raced past the Whitworth University Pirates 5-0 to run their record to 20-4.  Whitworth is 11-9 and Pacific is 13-6.

If the Missionaries' win over the Pirates was a sprint, the Bruins and Boxers' match was a marathon.  With only four outdoor courts available, two doubles matches going the distance and four singles matches going to three sets, it took five hours and 35 minutes to complete the contest between the Boxers, who are ranked 11th in the West, and the Bruins, who are ranked 12th in the region by the ITA.

Pacific, which had defeated George Fox 5-4 in their only meeting of the regular season, finished off the No. 3 doubles relatively quickly as Scott Kawamura and Kolin Wong downed the Bruins' Drew Milton and David Munoz 8-5.  At No. 2, the Bruins' Preston Mann and Shawn Aldrich were up 7-6 with Mann serving for the match, but the Boxers' Giancarlo Battaglia and Troy Zuroske broke Mann and went on to a 9-7 win.

“I knew that if we went down 3-0 after the doubles, it would be nearly impossible to come back,” admitted George Fox coach Neal Ninteman, “so we desperately needed the No. 2 - and we were in trouble.”

Peter Brown and Justin McClain were down 6-7 in games and 15-40 in points to the Boxers' Spencer Hing and Brandon Schlack.  With McClain serving, the Bruin duo fought back from that double match point, however, to even the contest.  The Bruins then broke service before Brown served for a 9-7 win that kept the Bruins in the match.

The first singles to finish was Milton's 6-0, 6-3 win over Schlack at No. 4, only the Boxer's second loss of the season to an NWC opponent - both to Milton.  That evened the match at 2-2.  The remaining singles going on at the time all went three tense sets.  Zuroske put the Boxers ahead with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win over Mann at No. 1, but Aldrich evened it for the Bruins with his 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Hing at No. 2. 

At No. 3, McClain dropped the first set 5-7 and was down 5-6 in the second before breaking Battaglia's serve to even the set, then prevailed 7-4 in the tiebreaker to earn a split.  He then gave the Bruins a 4-3 lead by taking the third set 6-3.  However, Pacific's Eric Furuya quickly evened the match 4-4 as he cruised past Andy Tweet 6-0, 6-1 at No. 6, leaving it up to Munoz and Kawamura to settle things at No. 5.

Munoz and Kawamura split 6-2 sets, Munoz taking the first and Kawamura the second.  Munoz appeared to have the third set in hand as he went up 5-1, but then the stress of the long match and the increasing temperatures at the outside venue began to take its toll.  Starting with first one leg and then the other, and then spreading to other parts of his body, Munoz began to cramp up, even getting called once for a time penalty because of his difficulty in continuing. 

Taking advantage of the opening, Kawamura stormed back to close within 5-4, giving the Boxers hope.  Munoz persevered in the final game, however, serving for the 6-4 win that gave the Bruins a hard-fought victory and the right to advance to the conference finals.

"David just refused to give up,” said Ninteman with admiration.  “He had the trainers trying to rub out his cramps, and was dropping to the ground after almost every point, yet he never considered quitting.  He just wasn't going to let us lose.  It was one of the guttiest performances I've ever seen.”

Ninteman had nothing but praise for the Bruins' opponent after the match, saying, “That's a terrific Pacific team we beat; my hat's off to Brian Jackson and the program he's put together over there.  They are super well-coached and class players all the way.”

George Fox had never advanced higher than sixth place in any previous NWC tennis tournaments, back in the days when every team in the conference made it.  This was the Bruins' first appearance since 2005 and their first under the current four-team tournament format.

“This was a huge step forward for our program,” said Ninteman, who is in his third year as the Bruins' coach.  “We set a goal before the season of playing in the conference tournament, and to reach that goal and play for the conference championship is exciting and very satisfying.”