Progress At Court

The picture above shows all that is left of Pacific's former recycling and waste management facility...a great signs for the Pacific tennis programs.

The facility, really a three-sided lean-to with trash compactors and recycling bins inside, is the most visible sign of progress on Pacific's new tenns facility. Site preparation is well under way on the former site of Tom Reynolds Soccer Field, including the removal of the last of the poplars that once ringed the field and the filling in the ball-eating gulch on the east side of the field.

Excavation for the new courts could begin as early as next week, with full fledged construction to get underway in November.

The courts will be a welcomed and long-awaited sight for the Pacific tennis teams, who have been without home courts since the summer of 2007 when the former Holce Courts were demolished to make way for the new A.C. Gilbert Residence Hall, which opened this fall. The Boxers played all of their 2008 home matches at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center, located a 30 minute drive from campus in Beaverton.

The new courts will be a step up from the former home facility. In addition to a new surface, three of the six courts will be covered, allowing for year-round play. That should eliminate a few trips to Beaverton when it rains.

Of note too is that the construction of the courts continues the use of the site at the corner of University Ave. and Cedar St. as a varsity athletic facility. The field was first used in the late 19th Century for football and track and later, as McCready Field, served as the longtime home of Pacific football. When football was discontinued after the 1991 season, the field became Tom Reynolds Field. It served as the home of the Pacific men's and women's soccer teams until moving to Lincoln Park Stadium in 2007.