The Oregon men’s tennis team ended its run at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships in Ojai, Calif. over the weekend with the freshman doubles team of Marco Verdasco and Francisco Gallardo making an unexpected push into the quarterfinals of the doubles championship bracket.
Verdasco and Gallardo pulled out a 9-7 win over USC’s Dejan Cvetkovic and Gary Sacks in the round of 16.
Then, in the quarterfinals, the team went up against Arizona State’s Matt Brooklyn and Wes Miller, and took the match to 8-8, but eventually lost 7-4 to the Sun Devils in the tiebreak.
The rest of the Ducks didn’t fare as well. Alex Cornelissen and Geoff Embry fell 8-4 to UCLA’s Philipp Gruendler and Ben Kohlloeffel in the round of 16. In the doubles invitational bracket, Eric Pickard and Stephen Wiechert came the closest to advancing to the quarterfinals. Pickard and Wiechert lost 9-8 to Washington’s Derek Drabble and Andy Kuharszky.
The Oregon women did no better. In the women’s doubles championship bracket, Dominika Dieskova and Ceci Olivos fell 8-4 to California’s Nina Henkel and Stephanie Kusano in the round of 16.
In the women’s doubles invitational bracket both Oregon teams were also eliminated in the round of 16. Carmen Seremeta and Tina Snodgrass lost 8-4 to California’s Daron Moore and Cristina Visico, while Monica Hoz de Vila and Anna Powaska were defeated 8-2 by Arizona’s Katie Orletsky and Natalia Toporowska.
The Pac-10 tournament marks the end of the season for the Oregon men, but the 40th-ranked women have an outside chance at making the national tournament. Tournament selections will be announced on Wed., May 2.
– Stefanie Loh