NEWBERG, Ore. – Drew Milton had a perfect day on the courts, not losing a single game in three sets, in leading the George Fox University Bruins to a 9-0 thrashing of the Pacific Lutheran University Lutes and into the Northwest Conference Men's Tennis Tournament for the first time since the 2005 season Friday afternoon here at the GFU campus courts.

George Fox, which is No. 12 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's NCAA Division III West Region rankings, improved to 8-7 overall and 7-3 in the conference, in third place in the league standings.  PLU fell to 6-8 overall and 4-5 in the standings, in fifth place.  The Bruins have two matches left, PLU three, but even if they were to tie, George Fox would have the tiebreaker with a sweep of the two-game series with the Lutes.  Fourth-place Whitworth University is 9-6 overall and 6-3 in the NWC.  Four teams make the tournament.

Milton's outstanding day began when he teamed with David Munoz to whitewash the Lutes' Noel Oteng-Mensah and Raymond DeLeon 8-0 at No. 2 doubles.  He continued without losing a game in a 6-0, 6-0 blanking of Oteng-Mensah at No. 3 singles.

The rest of the Bruins were almost as impressive, as none lost more than four games in a doubles match or three in any singles match.  Other doubles winners for George Fox were Peter Brown and Justin McClain over Sam Angel and Neal Berg 8-4 at No. 1, and Andy Tweet and Pax Magaway over Zach Blakeslee and Kyle McKee 8-4 at No. 3.

In singles, Preston Mann popped Angel 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1, while McClain beat Berg by an identical 6-3, 6-3 score at No. 2.  Munoz dropped DeLeon 6-0, 6-2 at No. 4, Tweet topped Blakeslee 6-2, 6-1 at No. 5, and Brown stopped McKee 6-1, 6-0 at No. 6.

NEXT: George Fox hosts the University of Puget Sound Saturday at 12:00 noon in its final home match of the season, before closing out the regular season next Saturday at Whitworth ... Pacific Lutheran visits Lewis & Clark College Saturday at 10:00 a.m.