The Oregon women’s tennis team finished its fall season with 19 victories in the Duck Classic last weekend.
The Ducks dominated in singles by winning 17 of the 21 matches played.
“I’m really pleased with how we played in singles,” head coach Jack Griffin said. “It’s still very early, and they are handling themselves very well.”
Oregon struggled, though, in its doubles matches, winning just two of nine over the weekend.
“We were up early, but couldn’t hold it,” said Janice Nyland, who lost three doubles matches with partner Davina Mendiburu, one by a score of 9-7. “We still have a lot of work to do.”
Adeline Arnaud and Ester Bak won the first doubles match for Oregon on Saturday. Courtney Nagle and Monika Gieczys won the second Sunday.
“We must work on our service returns,” Griffin said. “We are inconsistent on the starting points and it’s really hurting us.”
Teamwork is an area that the Ducks said they don’t need to improve on before they begin the regular season in January.
“We’ve been playing together for a while now,” Mendiburu said about Nyland. “We know how each other plays the game.”
The tournament included players from Brigham Young, Tulsa, New Mexico and Portland. Oregon won seven of its 10 matches against New Mexico on Friday, the first day of the tournament.
In singles, all eight Ducks won matches, with Bak, Gieczys and Vickie Gunnarsson winning three each to lead Oregon. Mendiburu, Nagle and Nyland won two matches each.
“One of our goals is to be competitive in every match we play,” Nyland said. “With everybody winning, I think we accomplished that this weekend.”
After withdrawing from an earlier tournament in Los Angeles, Oregon only played in two tournaments during the fall. But Griffin said he’s not worried about a lack of experience.
“I think we can get enough experience during our practices to make up for the lost tournament,” Griffin said. “We view these two tournaments as measuring sticks.”
The team will alter its practice schedule until after the upcoming winter break. The coaches will meet with the players individually or in smaller groups to work on individual problems.
“We will meet with the coaches like an hour a day, two days a week,” Nyland said. “The other three days, we’ll meet as a team and work on conditioning.”
The Ducks were able to gain some of the respect that they’re looking for this season by the way they dominated in singles.
“Right now we can only worry about ourselves and how we play,” Nyland said. “I still think we’re going to surprise a lot of people during the regular season.”
Peter Martini is a freelance reporter
for the Oregon Daily Emerald.