Before entering Sunday’s game against Princeton, the Oregon women’s tennis team had won
21 of its past 22 dual matches
in non-conference play. After
defeating Princeton, 4-3, at the Student Tennis Center, the Ducks (11-2) can now add another win to their impressive record. They also improved their home record to 8-1 on the season.
“We battled hard,” Oregon head coach Nils Schyllander said. “We got a lot of people playing sick right now, but they were sucking
it up.”
Despite several ill athletes, the Ducks were able to jump out to a 1-0 lead after taking two of the three doubles matches.
The doubles team Daria Panova and Dominika Dieskova led the Ducks after making quick work of Princeton’s Jessica Siebel and Stephanie Berg, 8-0, at the
No. 1 position. The Oregon duo upped its record to 10-3 on
the season.
At the No. 2 position, Dieskova upped her singles record to
10-3 while helping Oregon take a
2-0 lead. The 20-year-old defeated Princeton sophomore Darcy
Robertson in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.
Princeton cut the deficit to
2-1 when sophomore Joanna Roth triumphed over Oregon’s Jamie Marshall, 6-4, 6-3. Marshall came back from a 4-1 deficit in the first set to tie up the score at 4-4, but the junior from Las Vegas could not keep up her momentum through the rest of the matches, and her singles record fell to 4-7.
The Ducks quickly came back and took a commanding 3-1 lead when Panova bested Siebel in a hard-fought three-set match,
4-6, 6-0, 6-1. Panova, 22, said she mixed up her game after the first set, incorporating both forehand and drop shots aces that
frustrated her opponent.
“I didn’t expect the girl to play that well in the first set,” Panova said. “Her serve was very good, and I didn’t play my best. I wasn’t ready mentally, but in the second set, I started making more balls and just started hanging in there and eventually, she broke down.”
Ester Bak then clinched the victory for Oregon as she beat Princeton sophomore Laura Trimble at the No. 6 position in another three-set battle, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Bak was down 0-2 in the second set before winning 12 of the last 14 games to boost her singles record to 8-3.
“(Trimble) came out really big and hitting a lot of winners and came out fired up,” Bak said. “I was just being patient and playing every point, game by game. I was able to pick it up and change the momentum. I think I was a little bit more consistent (in the second and third set) and stepped up more too.”
Oregon’s Monica Hoz de Vila and Davina Mendiburu took the final two losses for the Ducks in three-set tiebreakers. Hoz de Vila, 19, saw her record fall to 3-3 as she was upended by Berg, 2-6, 7-5, (10-4). Mendiburu, 22, lost in the final match of the day to Christine Kansky, 2-6, 7-5, (10-8). Mendiburu’s singles record now stands at 8-5.
The Ducks will host Brigham Young March 19 at noon at the Student Tennis Center. Pacific-10 Conference play gets back on track on March 22 when the women travel up to Seattle to face Washington.