The opponents now get tougher for the Oregon men’s tennis team.
After easily beating Idaho and Northern Arizona last weekend, the Ducks prepare to face No. 69 Brigham Young today and No. 22 Washington on Sunday.
BYU (1-1) is coming off a 4-3 loss to No. 53 San Diego State, in which it lost four out of six singles matches, but won all three doubles.
No. 10 doubles team Carlos Lozano and Gert Vilms of BYU knocked off the No. 2 doubles team in the country, Oliver Maiberger and Ryan Redondo of San Diego State.
“They are really tough in doubles, not just anybody can beat the second-best doubles team in the country,” head coach Chris Russell said. “Whoever I put up against them will have to play their best to win.”
Vilms is ranked No. 84 as a singles player for the Cougars.
Washington enters the weekend with a 3-0 record with a combined 21-0 score against Gonzaga, UC Santa Barbara and No. 72 Portland.
“Washington is a really good team and they have some new guys that we haven’t seen before,” Russell said.
Matt Hanlin is ranked No. 44 and Alex Vlaski is ranked No. 53 in singles for the Huskies.
“This will be our first match against a Pac-10 team this season,” Russell said. “It will be important to see where we are in the conference.”
Oregon will continue to work on the things it needs to improve on and won’t go away from its game plan.
“The teams we are playing this weekend are much better than the two we just beat,” Russell said. “But we can’t get away from our strengths. We can’t play to our opponents, we need to play our way.”
The match against BYU begins with the doubles matches today at 4 p.m. in the Student Tennis Center. Free pizza will be served to fans on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The Ducks play the rival Huskies on Sunday at 2 p.m. Washington plays BYU on Saturday beginning at 2 p.m.
“All three matchups should be great,” Russell said. “There will be some really good tennis played this weekend.”