The male Ducks escaped rainy Eugene and migrated to sunny San Diego over the weekend for the team’s first outdoor tennis matches of the spring season. No. 41 Oregon (10-3) soaked up the UV rays and claimed a sweet 4-3 victory over Cal Poly on Saturday before getting blanked by No. 15-ranked San Diego (6-1) on Sunday, 0-4.
The Hogan Tennis Center hosted the Ducks and the Cal Poly Mustangs for a neutral-site matchup, which commenced with a doubles point victory for Oregon.
The Ducks took the lead early with wins on Courts 1 and 3. Matthew Burton and Quinn Vandecasteele eased past Colter Smith and Bastiaan Weststrate 6-1. Meanwhile, at No. 3 doubles, Lachlan Robertson and Avi Shugar defeated Noah Berry and Joe Leather 6-2.
Vandecasteele carried his doubles dominance into singles supremacy over Berry, winning 6-4, 6-4. The Mustangs reduced the deficit to one when Leather defeated Vlad Breazu at the No. 3 position, 6-4, 6-4, to get Cal Poly on the board.
First-year Burton bounced back from a first-set loss and bested his foe, Weststrate, in three sets, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. The Australian helped stretch the Ducks’ lead to 3-1 before Cal Poly fought back to tie it 3-3 following three-set wins at the No. 4 and No. 6 spots.
Oregon’s graduate transfer from Utah State, David Cierny, won the deciding set, going 1-6, 7-6 and 6-2 against Smith in the No. 2 spot. Match one of the weekend was complete, but Oregon’s formidable Sunday opponent, San Diego, stood between the Ducks and a road-weekend sweep.
Proving worthy of their ranking, the Toreros severed the Ducks’ seven-match winning streak in seasoned style.
Up against a top 20 team in the nation, head coach Nils Schyllander knew this match would be a tasking battle for his boys. San Diego is one the few stacked and skillful squads Oregon has faced this year, in addition to Boise State and Vanderbilt, who the team both lost to at the ITA Kick-Off in January.
Oregon’s No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, the same pairings from Saturday, both fell 3-6 to Stian Klaassen and Oliver Tarvet; and Savriyan Danilov and Lambert Ruland, respectively. Burton and Vandecasteele gave their opponents a run for their money, but the match went unfinished before the No. 1 Duck-duo could complete its comeback from trailing behind 5-6.
Following their doubles point triumph, the Toreros tore through singles play, claiming efficient straight-set wins on Courts 1, 2 and 4.
Vandecasteele faced the nation’s No. 5-ranked Tarvet on the top court. The San Diego sophomore served the Oregon senior a swift 6-1, 6-2 defeat on his home court. Tarvet is now 8-2 overall against ranked opponents this season and 2-0 against top-10 players.
Oregon’s No. 4 singles player, Zian Vanderstappen, who has spent most of his spring singles career at the No. 3 spot, could only come up with three games in his two-set loss to Danilov, 6-3, 6-0.
On Court 2, Cierny (5-3) fell to Ruland 6-4, 6-4. Ruland stopped the Cierny’s momentum with a crucial break point at 4-4 in the second set and successfully served out the match, ending the match in favor of the Toreros.
Breazu was trading back-and-forth games in the second set with the No. 89-ranked Iiro Vasa when the match was decided. Burton and Ray Lo also went unfinished on Courts 5 and 6, respectively. Burton was fighting his way through a third set while Lo was trying to take the second set from Klaassen.
San Diego is now 3-1 all-time against Oregon.
The Ducks will return to Southern California on Mar. 2 to take on No. 71 UC Santa Barbara (3-2) and then No. 48 Florida Atlantic (9-3) on Mar. 3. at the Arnhold Tennis Center.
