Spring break wasn’t all sandy beaches and drinks with little umbrellas for the Oregon tennis squads. The No. 56 men suffered two tough Pac-10 losses and the No. 27 women battled injuries and homesickness on the East Coast.
The men celebrated the end of finals with a 7-0 home victory against California-Riverside on March 25. The win snapped a four-match losing streak for the Ducks and gave them confidence going into their first official Pac-10 meetings against No. 7 California and No. 6 Stanford.
The Ducks kept that momentum going
in the doubles portion of the match by
taking two of three against Cal to win the doubles point.
“We played some good doubles out there,” head coach Chris Russell said. “We were competitive. We just need to get a little bit better.”
The Ducks were unable to win a singles match against the Golden Bears, who boast three players in the national rankings, and took the loss, 6-1.
Saturday, the Ducks lost the doubles point despite Thomas Bieri/Manuel Kost’s dominant 8-2 victory of No. 27 KC Corkery/James Pade of Stanford.
Kost, ranked No. 92 in singles, continued his strong play with a straight-sets victory over No. 12 David Martin.
Kost’s victory was the lone point for the Ducks as they lost by a score of 6-1 for the second day in a row and fell to 8-7 on the year.
The women fell on hard times during the break as well. The hobbled Ducks took their injury woes with them to Virginia, and the lack of depth led to three-straight losses.
The then-No. 22 Ducks took on No. 37 Virginia in Charlottesville last Monday but managed only one singles victory in a 6-1 loss that dropped them to No. 27 in the rankings.
Senior captain Monika Geiczys was
the only Duck to register a win against the Cavaliers, as she handled Lori Stern in straight sets.
The next stop for the No. 27 Ducks was a heart-breaking 4-3 loss to Virginia Tech.
“It was a hard-fought match,” head coach Nils Schyllander said. “Obviously, injuries are starting to catch up with us.”
The Ducks struggled to clinch the match after winning the doubles point and only managed two victories in singles competition. Courtney Nagle, No. 40 in the nation, and Ester Bak were the only Oregon players to leave Blacksburg with victories.
Friday, the Ducks visited Richmond to take on No. 14 Virginia Commonwealth in their first matchup as underdogs since a 4-3 loss to then-No. 21 Washington.
The Ducks fell to the Rams, 6-1, which dropped them below .500 for the first time since they started the year 0-1.
The lone Duck point came from No. 15 Daria Panova’s straight-sets victory over No. 67 Barbora Zahnova.
“We just need to try and have other people step up for us and get things rolling in the right direction again,” Schyllander said.
The women resume play this weekend on the road against Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount, while the men head south
to take on No. 40 Arizona and No. 49 Arizona State.
Ryan Heath is a freelance writer for the Emerald.