Oregon women’s tennis got back in the swing of things this weekend at the WSU Invitational in Pullman, Washington, where the Ducks competed in three days’ worth of doubles and singles play. Paired with experienced players, Oregon’s four new freshmen proved their abilities in the doubles flights, and one even took her singles flight’s championship.
The Ducks opened day one of the invitational on a strong note with a 6-1, 6-1 win for Alyssa Tobita and a 6-2, 6-2 win for Marlou Kluiving. One of Oregon’s newest members, Shweta Sangwan, also won her match in two sets, 6-3, 6-2. Oregon’s final match Friday resulted in a win for Paloma Gomez, who bested her Portland opponent 6-2, 7-5.
On the doubles side of the tournament, Oregon made the decision to pair up its freshmen with more seasoned players. Tobita and Sangwan made up one of Oregon’s duos while Kennan Johnson and Kluiving, Daniella Nasser and Christi Johnson, and Gomez and Micheline Aubuchon made up the others. Tobita and Sangwan had an extremely successful day, going three-for-three with 6-1, 7-6 and 6-1 wins.
Day two of the invitational began with Tobita winning her match 6-1, 4-6 and 6-1, advancing her to the singles finals of the Crimson flight on Sunday. In the Grey flight, freshman Sangwan advanced to the Sunday championship with a win over Washington State’s Barbora Michalkova, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. In the last doubles flight, Aubuchon was the last Duck to make the singles finals 7-5, 6-3.
In the Crimson doubles flights for Saturday, Tobita and Sangwan won their opening match as did Johnson and Kluiving; both teams won with a final scores of 6-4. In the second match, both teams also took the advantage with 6-2 final scores. With no knock out scoring, each team advanced to Sunday’s doubles finals. In the Grey doubles flight Aubuchon and Gomez won one set 6-2 and the other 6-1, while Nasser and Woodson fell to Idaho with a 2-6 loss.
The final day of the tournament, freshman Sangwan won the Grey flight championship 6-0, 6-4. In the Crimson flight finals, however, Tobita lost to WSU’s Bashota 6-1, 7-6 (7).
The doubles flights didn’t prove as fruitful for the Ducks. Johnson and Kluiving and Tobita and Sangwan fell to their WSU opponents 6-4 and 6-0 respectively. Aubuchon and Gomez and Nasser and Woodson were defeated 6-1 and 7-5.
Oregon has just one week until its next tournament take places in Seattle. The women will play in the University of Washington Invitational Oct. 9 to 11 with start times to be announced this week.
Follow Madison Layton on Twitter @MadisonLayton01