The Oregon women’s tennis team won in luxurious fashion at home on Friday. Eastern Washington University only brought four players, giving the Ducks three guaranteed points before play even began. They eventually won 7-0 without dropping a single set.
In doubles, Ares Teixido Garcia and Lillian Mould won by default, leaving only one match required to secure the doubles point.
Both Oregon duos handled their opponents with ease. The Eagles simply looked overmatched and off-balance the entire time. The Ducks exploited their weaknesses particularly at the net, where they smashed numerous overheads and drop shots.
Between Oregon’s two doubles pairs — Sophie Luescher and Uxia Martinez Moral, along with Allison Mulville and Karin Young — the Ducks didn’t lose a single game.
“I loved the way we came out in doubles,” Oregon coach Courtney Nagle said. “I thought we played aggressive from the start. We made some strong moves, and I think we were able to execute a lot of the things we were working on in practice this week, things that we needed to clean up and get better.”
With two defaults in singles play, the Ducks only needed to win one match to secure the victory. Eastern Washington put up more of a fight than they did in doubles, with three of the four singles matches starting 1-1.
But Oregon took control. Young’s 6-0, 6-0 win secured the victory, easing any potential nerves. Teixido Garcia settled in after losing her first game, eventually winning 6-1, 6-3. Freshman Luescher continued her strong start to the season with a dominant 6-1, 6-0 win.
The last remaining match was Martinez Moral. Her first set started 2-2, but she won four consecutive games to win the set handily. The second set was more of a struggle, as she found herself down 4-2. She wasn’t taking advantage of all her overheads, hitting them to the middle and making things closer than they needed to be.
As the rest of the matches died down, the Oregon players gathered to cheer her on from the sideline. Her opponent, Renata Gabuzyan, showed fatigue as Martinez Moral battled out a 7-5 win.
“She got a little passive at times, and that hurt her,” Nagle said. “I think in the end, when her teammates came out and everybody was watching her, she thrived.”
The Ducks have now won three straight matches to improve their record to 4-2. They’ll play the second of a five-match homestand on Sunday against Portland at 2 p.m.
“I’m just excited because I think each week we’re building, we’re getting better as a team,” Nagle said. “Each player is getting better, so we’re just continuing to build, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the season.”
