Mobile, AL – No. 3 Fresno Pacific began the 58th NAIA National Tennis Championships on Wednesday with a 5-0 win over Lee University (TN) in a rain delayed round of 16 match at the Mobile Tennis Center.
The match was actually delayed twice. From a 9:00am start, the match concluded at 2:15pm local time.
The Sunbirds (22-2) wasted no time in justifying their No. 3 seed as they swept all three doubles matches. In fact, Fresno Pacific lost just five total games in doubles play with the closest scores at Nos. 1 and 3 doubles (8-2).
Senior Marco Foelz’ 6-1, 6-3 win over Juan Saa at No. 4 singles punched his team’s ticket into the quarterfinalsagainst 6th-seeded GSAC rival, Azusa Pacific.The Sunbirds swept the regular season series with the Cougars by 8-1 and 7-2 scores.The Sunbirds and Cougars will battle for a shot at the national semifinals on Thursday, May 14th at 7:00am PDT.
On Monday May 11th, the NAIA announced their annual achievement awards for players and coaches.
Sunbird junior Alex Gonzalez was selected among hundreds of NAIA tennis players as the Intercollegiate
Tennis Association’s (ITA) National Player-to-Watch for his outstanding first year campaign. In addition, he was also selected as the ITA Regional Player-to-Watch. Gonzalez compiled a 22-1 record primarily at No. 3 singles, to go along with an impressive 20-3 mark withpartner Vicente Joli at No. 1 doubles.
Senior Marco Foelz was recognized as a NAIA Scholar Athlete for the fourth straight year, compiling a 4.0 GPA over the course of his entire academic career. An International Business major, Foelz earned his MBA last Saturday.
Fresno Pacific head coach Neil Castro was selected as the ITA Women’s Regional Coach of the Year after leading the Sunbirds to their fourth straight GSAC title with an 18-0 conference record.
For up to date NAIA National Tennis Championship information, please visit:
http://naia.cstv.com/sports/m-tennis/spec-rel/012508aab.html