The Ducks women’s tennis team opened its dual match season with a perfect double-double when it shut out Montana State and Portland 7-0, 7-0 at home Saturday.
Oregon completely overwhelmed Montana State, sweeping aside the Bobcats’ three doubles teams 8-2, 8-3, 8-3.
In singles, Oregon sophomore Claudia Hirt rolled to a 6-0, 6-0 victory over McKenzie Hilmer from the No. 6 singles position, then watched as four of her teammates all scored straight-set victories over their opponents.
The Bobcats’ Nicole Luetolf managed to steal the first set 6-4 in her match against Oregon’s Ceci Olivos, but Olivos stormed back to win the second set 6-3, and then won the match outright when she took the 10-point tiebreak 10-6.
“In the beginning I was trying to be too aggressive and opened the court too much,” Olivos said. “But then Paul (Reber, Oregon’s coach) told me to get more balls into the center, and I think that was the key in the end.”
The Ducks used their evening match against Portland as a testing ground to try out some new techniques that Reber has introduced. As a result, the scores turned out a lot closer than they should have been.
The Ducks eventually won all their singles matches, but Oregon’s No. 1 singles player, Dominika Dieskova, dropped the first set 6-4 before finding her momentum and taking the second set 6-0 in her hard fought 6-4, 6-0 (10-3) win against Portland’s Jenna Tanzer.
“It took me a while to get into a rhythm,” Dieskova said. “We’re kinda working on some stuff with my forehand, and it’s kind of hard to translate it from practice into matches.”
Reber has been trying to get Dieskova to play a more aggressive style of tennis by making her attack more on her forehand side.
“I have to give Dominika credit,” he said. “Last year she would have started chipping and maybe moonballing some forehands just to keep the ball in the court.
“But tonight she stepped up and kept swinging at them. It cost her a set, but that’s going to make her better in the long run.”
In doubles, Oregon’s number two team of Hirt and Carmen Seremeta also initially struggled to incorporate Reber’s new strategies into their game. The pair gave up five games to Portland’s Tanzer and Sporndli before finally clinching the match 8-5.
“They were making a lot of good moves as far as being aggressive and poaching, but just ended up missing a few too many balls,” Reber said. “But we’ve got to keep looking to do that. The more we take those shots, the easier it’s going to get.”
The Oregon men’s tennis team also opened their dual match season over the weekend with a 7-0 rout of Division III Linfield College on Saturday.
The Wildcats posed very little resistance to the Ducks. Oregon freshmen Ric Mortera and Stephen Weichert won their No. 3 doubles match 8-2 in about 20 minutes. From the No. 3 singles position, Mortera then proceeded to demolish Linfield’s Cole Shelton 6-1, 6-0 in about 30 minutes.
“It was good to just get on the courts and play. We have a lot of freshmen, and we just need to get them in uniform so that they know the routine and know what game day looks like,” men’s coach Nils Schyllander said.
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