Spokane, Wash. - The #73 Pacific Tigers men's tennis team wrapped up their fourth win of the year and their second straight with a 4-3 victory over Gonzaga on the road today in their WCC opener. "Today was a battle," said Head Coach Ryan Redondo, as the Tigers took all their points in the singles competition and hung on for the overall victory. "It wasn't pretty by any means...but I did see a lot from this team that only comes from those types of gut-wrenching matches." The win moves Pacific's overall record to 3-4 and puts them at 1-0 in conference. Gonzaga is now 2-2 (0-1).
Sem Verbeek gave the Tigers their first win of the day with a 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Gonzaga's Hayden Smith. Verbeek is now 6-1 in singles this season, with an unfinished match as well. The senior has now won his last five straight singles matches.
Daniel Alameh made it two wins in two singles matches for Pacific when he took down Jordan Smith of Gonzaga. Alameh won 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-4. Alameh is now 5-2 overall in singles matches on the season.
In the third match of the day, Gonzaga's Ruadhan O'Sullivan took down Miguel Diaz of Pacific 6-3, 6-3. "Gonzaga was tough and they came after us over and over again from the beginning to the end," said Redondo. The Bulldogs took two singles matches thanks to O'Sullivan and Emilio Moreno, who beat Lance Ngo 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
Alex Giannini and Bernardo Oliveira won in each of the next two singles matches to give Pacific their third and fourth points of the day and seal the victory. "Our bottom half showed us they are pushing back and that was encouraging to see," said Redondo of Giannini's 6-1, 6-2 victory and Oliveira's 7-6 (11-9), 6-0 win. Giannini and Oliveira have now each won their last two singles matches on the season. "What a way to kick off conference play," Redondo said about the nail-biter matchups.
In doubles play, the Tigers dropped both completed matches. Gonzaga's pair of Smiths defeated Verbeek and Diaz 6-2. Alameh and Giannini of Pacific played Moreno and O'Sullivan of Gonzaga to a 5-5 tie in an unfinished match before Oliveira and Ngo fell to Gonzaga's Varas and Saurombe 6-1. "Weaknesses were exposed and we will improve on those with a good amount of practice...[it was] down to the wire and the guys prevailed," said Redondo as the Tigers scrapped to take home the W.
Next up for Pacific is another WCC matchup with San Francisco on Saturday, February 20 at 1:00 pm. The next home match for the Tigers will be March 6 against Utah State at 3:00 pm.
