Two seasons of close battles and hard work have finally paid off for the Oregon women’s tennis team.
Finishing 5-17 last season, the No. 39 Ducks (13-10) will face No. 18 UNLV in the first round of the NCAA Tournament next weekend at USC.
“I’m excited for our players because we met our goals for this season,” Oregon head coach Jack Griffin said. “We bounced back from a difficult year
last year.”
UNLV finished 20-3 overall on the season and is riding a seven-match winning streak. They had 11 wins against ranked opponents, but were only 2-2 away from home.
“They are a very good home team,” assistant coach Nils Schyllander said. “But we get them at USC, where we’ve played before. We know the courts.”
UNLV’s losses were against No. 2 Stanford, No. 8 Wake Forest and No. 26 San Diego State.
Oregon, winners of six out of its last seven, will make its third trip to the NCAAs in the last four years.
The Ducks lost to Mississippi State in the first round of the tournament two years ago. In 1999, Oregon beat South Florida before losing to Stanford in the second round.
“We’re peaking right now,” Schyllander said. “I wouldn’t want to play us right now.”
Griffin said he expected his team would play at Stanford, but is pleasantly surprised by the seeding.
“Because of Sept. 11, they are trying to regionalize the tournament,” Griffin said. “They are trying to keep us within 400 to 600 miles from home. But I’m glad we get to play at USC instead of Stanford.”
The Rebels hosted the first round NCAA match two years ago and beat the Ducks. Seniors Janice Nyland and Adeline Arnaud and junior Monika Gieczys competed in that match.
“I think this is a good draw for us,” Schyllander said. “UNLV had their best season ever, but they won a lot of 4-3 matches, and I feel we can pull off an upset.”
The first round match will be May 11 at Los Angeles. The winner will face the winner of No. 11 USC and Oral Roberts.