Senior Day or not, for Eric Pickard it was business as usual as he strapped on his trademark white golf glove, but took the kid gloves off to take it to the Huskies even after the Ducks had already fallen behind 6-0 in their final dual of the season on Saturday.
Earlier that day, Pickard had grinned and waved at his friends and family gathered in the crowd as Oregon assistant coach Bart Scott read the team’s Senior Day tribute to the little man with the big attitude known to the team as ‘Pick.’
All the attributes that Scott had highlighted were evident in the match later as Pickard brought his “amazing work ethic,” his “mythical white glove,” his “unconventional two-handed forehand” and his “squash-like defense” to bear in an epic three-set battle against Washington’s Michael Ricks on the No. 6 singles court.
Pickard got off to a slow start against Ricks, dropping the first set 6-2 and playing sluggishly in the beginning of the second set.
“My first set was horrendous,” Pickard said. “I was excited and I wasn’t nervous, but all the excitement was in my upper body, and there was nothing in my lower body, just terrible footwork and I was just spanking balls out.”
Scott caught on to that midway through the second set and came Pickard’s aide.
“Bart came over and woke me up,” Pickard said. “We went in the back and we did some up-downs real quick – fast feet, go up, jump real quick, then hit the ground. That woke me up and I started to play a little bit then.”
Pickard took the second set 6-3, but then found himself exchanging points with Ricks in what seemed to be a never-ending third set.
At 5-5 in the third set, the entire Oregon team gathered on the sideline erupted in a rousing cheer of “Let’s go senior, let’s go senior.”
Pickard seemed to feed off his teammates’ energy as he came into the net and smashed an overhead out of the air to beyond the reach of a flailing Ricks to make the score 6-5.
Ricks tied it up again at 6-6 after Pickard yanked a return wide right. But a big serve on the next point gave the Duck a 7-6 edge. Then, Pickard ended his dual match career by putting together a set of returns that culminated in a rush to the net and a forehand volley winner.
Pickard and Ricks shook hands at the net, and Ricks returned to where Chris Russell – the current Washington coach who had headed the Oregon tennis program during Pickard’s freshman and sophomore years – awaited on the sideline.
“That was a little strange to have Chris on the other side,” Pickard said. “But I’m glad I played my last match with him on the court, because I probably started out with him on the court, too.
“Plus I like the guy a lot, so I’m sure he’s happy I won too, in a way.”
With his former coach on the court, his friends and hallmates from his freshman year in the dorms cheering him on from the sideline, and a Senior Day win to cap off his best season in four years, Pickard found closure to his Oregon career in the most complete way possible.
“I should never come back to these courts again,” he joked, “Just leave it like this. I was just glad to win it on a good note.”
Ladies drop heartbreakers
After Eric Pickard closed out the Oregon men’s match against Washington on his Senior Day the day before, it seemed fitting that seniors Dominika Dieskova and Monica Hoz de Vila would end up being the only two women left on the court in the women’s Senior Day match against the Huskies on Sunday.
With the Huskies ahead 3-2 in the overall dual score, Dieskova held the fate of the team in her hands as she hunkered down behind the baseline on the No. 1 singles court against Washington’s Mathilde Cor.
Dieskova lost the first set 6-3, but had pushed Cor to 6-5 in the second, and with double set-point at 40-15, was on the verge of extending the match into a third set of play.
Then Dieskova seemed to wilt. Cor served herself back into contention and pushed the game to advantage, at which point a wide forehand volley from Dieskova at the net resulted in 6-6 and a seven-point tiebreak.
In the tiebreak, Dieskova never seemed to assume control of her game. Backhand passing shots hit the tape, what should have been volley winners found the doubles alley instead of the sideline. With a final errant volley, the woman who holds the record for most matches played in Oregon tennis history finally sucuumbed to her opponent, 6-3, 7-6.
“We lost. It’s not a good feeling, you know,” Dieskova said afterward, sounding shaky. “It was the last match, but I guess until this season is over completely, it’s still not done. It’ll probably hit me then, I just don’t want to believe it yet.”
With Dieskova’s defeat, Washington clinched the pivotal fourth point it needed to win the dual, but the day wasn’t over for Hoz de Vila, who later called her three-hour match against Joyce Ardies one of the closest of her career.
With the score tied at one set apiece (7-6, 6-7) Hoz de Vila and Ardies squared off in the third set, with Hoz de Vila looking to end her fairytale senior season on a winning note.
Before this year, the Bolivia native had held an 18-9 overall dual meet singles record over three years of play. This season, things changed and her 13 dual singles wins was testament to the fact that Hoz de Vila had finally found her rhythm.
In the third-set tie break, with rhythm on her side, Hoz de Vila jumped out to a quick 8-5 lead and a nicely placed backhand volley put her ahead at 9-6 – triple match point.
But she never quite managed to close out the match. Several unforced errors from Hoz de Vila later, Ardies had tied things up at 10-10, and with that went Hoz de Vila’s best opportunity to take the match.
The two exchanged points for the next few minutes, then with Ardies ahead 14-13, and Hoz de Vila advancing to the net and looking to poach, the Husky took a chance and sent a shot down the line. Hoz de Vila anticipated the shot on her backhand side and reached out, flailing in vain.
Ardies let out a primal yell as a still silence descended upon Hoz de Vila and the rest of the Ducks.
Despite the tight loss, Hoz de Vila seemed surprisingly upbeat afterwards.
“Tired? Oh no. I could go a third set, fourth set, a fifth set. I could have played longer and kicked her butt,” she said with a sigh. “There were points that I had her. I just hurried too much instead of taking my time, got in a little bit of a hurry and got to be too aggressive instead of being patient aggressive.
“But I still fought hard, and I think I played well. Going to the volleys, going up to the net. And that’s satisfying for me. I had fun.”
The Ducks head to Ojai, Calif. this week for the Pacific-10 Conference Championships.
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