NEWBERG, Ore. -- The George Fox men's tennis team hosted the annual ITAs, with several Bruins getting their first taste of collegiate tennis.

How It Happened
Players from all eight NWC teams competed in the Northwest Regional, competing in three brackets — A doubles bracket and "A" and "B" brackets for singles.

On the doubles side, three Fox teams lost in their opening round: Luke Wheeler and Jayden Lovingfoss, Joseph Vece and Aiden Cruz, and Luis Hernandez and Bernardo Martinez. However, the squad of Zach Moore and Keita Shoji had success; after a first round bye, the duo took down Puget Sound's Tyler Blixt and Vincent Unpingco, 8-4, to advance to the Round of 16. Moore and Shoji ultimately lost to Whitworth's Henry Preacher and Connor Judson, 8-6.

Though they lost early, Vece and Cruz made some noise in the consolation bracket, defeating Tommy Gabrielson and Alejandro Alanis, 8-2 in the Round of 16 and Colby Cinqmars and Matthew Froslan in the consolation quarters, 8-6. The duo eventually lost to the eventual consolation champions, Pacific's Ryley Chang and Joshua Dela Cruz, in the semis, 8-3.

On the singles side, several Bruins picked up wins. While Cruz and Vece each fell in their opening round, Shoji (4-6, 6-1, 1-0 over Lewis & Clark's Spencer Loucks) and Hernandez (6-4, 6-4 over Whitman's William Langstra) won one match. For the "B" bracket, Lovingfoss, Wheeler and Martinez dropped their games.

The story of the weekend for the Bruins was Zach Moore. The senior finished as a regionally-ranked athlete in 2024-25, and entered the tournament as the second-seeded singles player. Moore received a bye before downing Pacific's Lucas Fuhrmann (6-3, 6-1) and racing past Whitman's Cooper Wyngarden (6-1, 6-4) to reach the quarterfinals. In the quarters, Linfield's Zac Nakajima withdrew due to injury, moving Moore to a semis matchup against 12th-seeded Artem Manov of Whitman. Though Moore won the first set, he would drop the game in a close three-set affair.

Up Next
The Bruins will look to build off of their ITAs experience and gear up for the spring of 2026.