Going into the weekend ranked in the top 20 for the first time in program history, the Oregon women’s tennis team made quick work of Eastern Washington and Nevada-Reno in a doubleheader on Friday.
Led by sophomore Carmen Seremeta’s 6-0, 6-0 win against Eastern Washington’s Iliana Petrova, the 20th-ranked Ducks (8-4 overall, 0-2 Pacific-10 Conference) defeated the Eagles 6-1 Friday morning.
Sophomore walk-on Tina Snodgrass made her Oregon debut against the Eagles as a result of Ceci Olivos’ shoulder injury.
Snodgrass came out strong and took the first set 6-0 against Eastern Washington’s Sayaka Yoshimoto, but eventually wilted in the second and third sets, and lost 0-6, 6-4, 6-2.
“I had very few unforced errors and I was really consistent with my strokes in the first set,” Snodgrass said. “Then in the second set I started having difficulty with my serve and it took away my confidence and the match kinda went down from there.
“The second set was really the loss of one serve, then in the third set, I beat myself.”
Nevada-Reno was more of a challenge.
Leading 3-1 more than two hours into the match, with three matches still in progress, the Ducks needed just one more singles win to clinch the dual.
At game point in the middle of an intense second set rally, Monica Hoz de Vila sent the Wolfpack’s Laetitia Tan running with a perfectly placed shot deep into Tan’s backcourt.
Tan struggled to chase it down. Seeing her opportunity, Hoz de Vila advanced to the net, waiting and watching.
Tan returned with a weak, wobbly overhead. Racquet poised, head up, Hoz de Vila backpedalled to meet the ball and clinched the match for the Ducks with a booming overhead winner.
Soon after, Anna Powaska produced a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 win from the No. 5 singles position, and left Dominika Dieskova alone on the court, trying to close out her No. 1 match against the Wolfpack’s Russian freshman sensation Maria Mizyuk.
Mizyuk’s heavy, flat groundstrokes kept Dieskova on the defense for most of the match, and prevented the 6-foot-tall Duck from rushing the net and playing her net game.
What ensued was a 2 hour 45 minute marathon match that ended in a second-set 10-point tiebreak.
Dieskova got as far as 6-3 in the tiebreak before Mizyuk snapped into a steady rhythm and finished off the match 4-6, 7-6 (10-6).
Afterward, Dieskova was visibly upset, and said the loss hurt more than the 6-0, 6-0 drubbing she suffered at the hands of Sacramento State’s Katrina Zheltova earlier this season.
“This hurts more than the 0-0 loss because I had a chance to win it,” Dieskova said. “I was upset because I was very close in that match and there were a lot of emotions throughout – I came so close, and it was back and forth fighting all the way.
“We played three hours and two sets. I was fighting with myself to come up with my game, and not just react to her game. I knew what I needed to do. But I wasn’t doing it.”
On Saturday, the Oregon men sent Eastern Washington packing with a convincing 5-2 win. The Ducks’ two losses came from opposite ends of the lineup, with leadoff man Marco Verdasco losing 7-6 (8). 6-1, and Francisco Gallardo dropping a three-set match to the Eagles’ Daniel Pez.
[email protected]