The 2010 season was not particularly memorable for the men’s and women’s tennis teams. The women suffered an 11-match losing streak last year, while the men dropped eight of their last nine matches to end the season.
In its early moments, 2011 has been kinder to both teams. The men improved to 4-0 over the weekend with 6-1 victories over Portland State and Pacific, while the women opened the season with wins over Portland and Portland State.
After two wins on the road last week against Eastern Washington and Gonzaga, the men continued their strong play at home against Portland State on Friday. They won the doubles point in a 3-0 sweep, and went on to take five of the six singles matches.
“We came out a little flat in doubles play, but were able to pick it up to sweep that point,” head coach Nils Schyllander told GoDucks.com. “In singles play, we got on top of Portland State early and kept rolling from there.”
The momentum continued on Sunday against Pacific. It was an early-morning start at 10 a.m., but the Ducks did not come out flat-footed. They took two of the doubles matches to earn the match’s opening point, then went on to win five singles matches on the way to the 6-1 victory.
“Overall, we played well across the board,” Schyllander told GoDucks.com. “Our players showed a lot of maturity in winning some tight matches.”
The women, meanwhile, couldn’t have dreamed of a better start than Friday’s 7-0 sweep. The Ducks took all three doubles matches and swept through singles play as well. Junior Trudie du Toit was particularly dominant, defeating her singles opponent 6-0, 6-0.
“Anytime you can win 7-0 it’s obviously a good day,” head coach Paul Reber told GoDucks.com. “We took care of business both in singles and doubles and saw a lot of good things even with some players out of the lineup. Trudie and Rabea (Stueckemann) both played outstanding and Pascale (Neubert) got off to a good start in singles play.”
The Ducks also coasted to a 6-1 victory on Sunday against Portland.
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