Oregon (6-10) suffered its seventh straight loss Saturday, losing 5-2 to the No. 13 USC Trojans at the Student Tennis Center in Eugene.
The Trojans opened the match with an early 1-0 lead after earning the doubles point due to Oregon forfeiting on court No. 3 and USC winning 6-2 on court No. 1. Ducks Julia Eshet and Rifanty Kahfiani won their match on court No. 2, 6-1.
Oregon entered singles play forfeiting again on court No. 6, which gave USC a quick 2-0 lead. The Trojans then won straight sets on both court No. 4 (6-2, 6-1) and court No. 5 (6-0, 6-2) over Oregon’s Julia Eshet and Taryn Fujimori, respectively.
Sophomore Paiton Wagner (now 10-4 in dual matches) was the first on the board for the Ducks after defeating USC’s Ana Neffa in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4. Oregon then earned its final point of the match on court No. 3 with junior Rifanty Kahfiani beating Becca Weissmann, 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-7).
USC secured the win with a tough win in the No. 1 court over Oregon’s Daniela Nasser, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 1-0 (10-6).
“[I’m] proud of the way this team fought today,” Oregon head coach Courtney Nagle told GoDucks. “There are a lot of positives for us to take from today and to build confidence from. We had some great performances in doubles and singles and played more complete tennis than we have played for a while.”
The Ducks will return to the courts at the Student Tennis Center on Sunday to face UCLA at 11 a.m.
Follow Maggie Vanoni on Twitter: @maggie_vanoni