FRESNO, CA – No. 4 Fresno Pacific beat No. 8 Azusa Pacific 7-2 on Thursday at the Haak Tennis Center.

Friday's match was postponed for two days due to inclement weather in the central valley.  The match against the Cougars was originally scheduled for Tuesday, April 7th.

The Sunbirds improve to 18-2 (12-1 GSAC), while Azusa Pacific drops to 10-12 (7-6 GSAC).

The match was closer than the final score indicates, as the visiting Cougars grabbed one of the three doubles points and challenged the Sunbirds at Nos. 1 and 4 singles.

Sunbird No. 1 singles player, Fabio Silva, overcame a sluggish start to rout Matthijs Bolsius 6-2 in the 2nd set, to force a deciding 10-point match tiebreaker.

An overrule against Bolsius at 8-8 set up Silva's only match point of the day.  Silva capitalized, as his line drive backhand passing shot attempt forced Bolsius into a backhand volley error to secure a 4-6, 6-2, (10-8) comeback victory.

Fresno Pacific's next match is against 6th-ranked Vanguard (13-6, 8-6 GSAC) on Saturday, April 18th at the Haak Tennis Center.  The match is scheduled for a 2:00pm start time.

Box Score:

April 9, 2009

Haak Tennis Center

Fresno, CA

No. 4 Fresno Pacific def. No. 8 Azusa Pacific 7-2

Doubles:

Alex Gonzalez/Vicente Joli (FPU) def. Ronald Chow/Daniel Moore 8-1

Janosch Apelt/Mathias Weber (APU) def. Maxime Adam/Marco Foelz 8-6

Jose Hilla/Fabio Silva (FPU) def. Matthijs Bolsius/Ilja Ikonnikov 8-5

Fresno Pacific led 2-1 after doubles - Order of finish – 1, 3, 2

Singles:

Fabio Silva (FPU) def. Matthijs Bolsius 4-6, 6-2, (10-8)

Vicente Joli (FPU) def. Janosch Apelt 6-2, 6-3

Alex Gonzalez (FPU) def. Daniel Moore 6-2, 6-1

Mathias Weber(APU) def. Marco Foelz 6-2, 6-3

Maxime Adame (FPU) def. Ron Chow 6-0, 6-2

Nicolas Ernst (FPU) def. Whitman Hough 6-0, 6-2

*Denotes clinching match - Order of finish: 5, 6, 3*, 2, 4, 1

Records: Fresno Pacific (18-2, 12-1 GSAC)

               Azusa Pacific (10-12, 7-6 GSAC)