After a dud of a season, the Oregon tennis teams hoped to finish things with a bang. It was fitting that it ended with a fizzle.
Wins were few and far between for the Ducks at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships in Ojai, Calif. Both the men’s and women’s teams, the only non-ranked teams in the conference, finished last in the Thatcher Cup Standings, a scoring system that ranks Pac-10 teams at the Championships.
Most of the men’s success came in doubles play, where the Ducks’ No. 1 team of sophomore Oded Teig and Martin Pawlowski upset Arizona State’s Nic Dubey and Matt Klinger, 8-5. Their success was short lived, however, as they were eliminated in the quarterfinals by No. 19-ranked Alex Kim and K.J. Hippensteel of Stanford, 8-5.
“They played a couple of good matches with a win over ASU’s No. 1 team and they were very competitive with Stanford’s No. 1 team, so I was very pleased with their effort,” men’s head coach Chris Russell said.
Oregon’s No. 2 team of senior David Becker and freshman Buck Mink played Arizona State’s Pim Van Mele and Olivier Charroin tough, but fell 8-6.
In the invitational doubles tournament, the freshmen combo of Alexander Druzenko and Greg Dubourdieu disposed of UCLA’s Derrick Nguyen and Chris Sands, 8-5. But again, the Ducks were unable to capitalize, as they were eliminated by Stanford’s Scott Lipsky and David Martin, 8-1.
The men’s lone singles win over the weekend also came from Teig. The Holon, Israel, native defeated Van Mele in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.
The women were led by freshman sensation Courtney Nagle, who earned the Ducks only singles win of the weekend. The Ducks’ leader in total victories defeated Arizona State’s Jennifer Baker, 6-2, 7-6. The freshman finished the season with an 18-7 record, tied for second on the all-time single season victories list and broke the school freshman record, previously held by teammate Monika Geiczys.
With NCAA Tournament bids all but eliminated, the Ducks’ seasons are over. The men finished the 2000-01 year with an 8-13 overall record while the women were 5-17. Both were last in the conference standings.