The Oregon men’s tennis team picked up its first Pacific-10 Conference win of the season and first in almost four years on Sunday, defeating Arizona State 4-3 in Eugene.
The Ducks hadn’t tasted a conference victory since they beat Arizona State during the 2000 season.
“We spoke about coming out with energy and spirit and putting everything on the line and we did that today,” Oregon head coach Chris Russell said.
Thirty-eighth ranked junior Sven Swinnen led the Ducks with a three-set victory, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, over Arizona State senior Chris Stewart.
The victory gave the Swiss-born Swinnen a tie for fourth on the all-time Oregon list with 55 match wins. Swinnen also moved up to a tie for ninth place on Oregon’s all-time single-season victory list with 19.
“Sven knows what it takes to win matches, and when he sticks with his game plan he is hard to beat,” Russell said.
The Ducks fell behind early when Arizona State captured the doubles point, but quickly tied it up when Oregon junior Manuel Kost made quick work of Arizona State junior Clinton Letcher, 6-2, 6-2. The victory marks the third in a row for Kost.
Sophomore Arron Spencer clinched the victory for Oregon when he defeated Arizona State’s Ryan McBride in two straight tie-breakers for a 7-6, 7-6 win.
“There’s obviously nerves, but I was in the same spot against Stanford and that gave me confidence that I could win a match in the tie-breaker,” Spencer said.
The Ducks home-court advantage didn’t work in their favor Friday, as they lost to Arizona 5-2.
The Wildcats came out swinging and defeated the Ducks, 2-1, in doubles to pick up the first point. Oregon’s lone victory came from Swinnen and Spencer, marking their 14th victory of the year, moving them to 10th all-time for single-season doubles victories at Oregon.
While the Ducks won the top two positions in singles with victories from Swinnen and Kost, Arizona swept the rest of the matches to pick up the win.
“Every one of their guys played to win the match and that was the difference,” Russell said.

Women’s team goes 1-1 on road trip
The Oregon women’s tennis team’s three-match winning streak was halted Friday by Tulsa, 5-2, but the Ducks rebounded for a 4-3 victory Saturday over San Diego State in California.
Eighth-ranked junior Daria Panova picked up her 28th victory of the season by shutting out Dita Hauerlandova, 6-0, 6-0. Sophomore Anna Leksinska clinched the match for the Ducks, defeating Patricia Graf, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
“The match was a great college battle and with a lot of players playing hurt, Anna (Leksinska) and the rest of the team stepped up to the challenge,” Oregon head coach Nils Schyllander said.
The Ducks started their match strong against Tulsa on Friday, sweeping the doubles play and picking up an early 1-0 lead, but they could only win one more match the rest of the day with Leksinska’s three-set victory over Timberly Greenly, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.
“We had so much momentum after winning the doubles point,” Schyllander said. “We just got out-played in singles.”
The women conclude their road trip today against San Diego.