A little bit everything greeted the Oregon tennis teams this weekend: a win, some losses and a little rain.
The Oregon men won their fourth straight match on Friday, but on Sunday, No. 6 Washington came into the Student Tennis Center and snapped the Ducks’ streak.
In women’s action, Oregon extended its losing streak to three matches in a loss to No. 12 Southern California before an unexpected spell of rain cancelled its match with No. 18 UCLA.
The men were thinking upset against eh Huskies after winning the doubles point against Washington. Jason Menke and Buck Mink, playing at the No. 2 spot, defeated Dillon Ruby and Ari Strasberg by a score of 9-7, while Oded Teig and Chris King teamed up to earn a 9-8 victory over Matt Hanlin and Andrej Bizjak.
Unfortunately, the men would score no more.
The Ducks were held winless in all six singles matches. David Becker and Greg Durbourdieu, playing at the No. 4 and 6 spots, forced a third set from their opponents but were unable to pick up points.
Men’s head coach Chris Russell said there were positves and negatives in his team’s effort.
“We played lots of close sets,” Russell said. “There were certain matches that could have been closer if we had made better decisions. We didn’t have quite the detail that we needed to in the third sets. But overall, it was a good effort.”
The men fell to 5-6 on the season and 0-3 in the Pacific-10 Conference.
Meanwhile, the women travelled to California to take on the Los Angeles schools. But USC was too much for the Ducks to handle, as the Trojans swept doubles matches en route to a 5-2 win on Friday.
Oregon’s freshmen came through with big wins for the Ducks.
Freshman Davina Mendiburu managed to defeat USC’s Tiffany Brymer by scores of 7-6, 2-6 and 6-4 at the No. 5 spot. Teammate Courtney Nagle won her match against Krissy Hamilton-Heinberg, 6-4, 6-1 at the No. 6 spot.
But nothing else went Oregon’s way. Mendiburu and teammate Janice Nyland battled in doubles play, but were defeated by USC’s duo of Tiffany Brymer and Jewel Peterson, 8-4, at No. 1 doubles. Oregon’s two other tandems were shut down 8-0.
The Ducks were supposed to face UCLA at noon Saturday, but a rare occurence of L.A. showers cancelled that match.
The Oregon men’s next match takes place at 2 p.m. Saturday against Portland at the Student Tennis Center in Eugene. The women travel to Fresno, Calif., this Saturday and Sunday to take on Loyola Marymount and Fresno State.