The injury-plagued Oregon men’s tennis team will attempt to snap a five-match losing streak when it heads to the Arizona desert this weekend. The Ducks (6-12 overall, 0-2 Pacific-10 Conference) play the Wildcats (10-6, 2-5) on Friday before trying to topple the Sun Devils (7-10) on Sunday.
“For me, every match is a new match,” Oregon coach Kevin Kowalik said. “I don’t know if I’m just numb to losing right now, because between last year and this year we haven’t really won that much, but I just want the guys to play hard. That’s all we care about.
“If we end up losing 7-0, but the guys played as hard as they could and just couldn’t get it done that day, I’ve got no problem with that.”
The three seniors who normally play in the top half of Oregon’s lineup are all playing hurt. Thomas Bieri has been dealing with wrist and back problems for most of the season, while Arron Spencer is nursing an arm injury. Markus Schiller (13-5), ranked 77th and the Ducks’ most consistent player this season, also tweaked his back in his match against Stanford last Sunday.
In addition, freshman Mike Myrhed, normally entrenched in the No. 4 roster spot, has a stress fracture in his left foot and will not play this weekend.
To compensate for the sub-par play of his hurt seniors, Kowalik has had to call upon the services of freshmen Gustavo Loza and Fernando Freitas.
Of the three freshmen who joined the team in January, Kowalik heralds Mexican-born Loza as the player who’s made the biggest improvement this season.
“At the start of the season, he wasn’t even playing, but then he got his game going, and came out hard. And now he’s able to come out and play No. 3 singles for us,” Kowalik said.
Loza (4-9 singles, 10-4 doubles) filled in at No. 3 for Spencer in the Ducks’ loss to Stanford last Sunday.
He lost 6-1, 6-1 to 24th-ranked KC Corkery.
“Even though I lost, I’d say that was the match that has taught me that most this season,” Loza said. “Corkery is the only ranked guy I’ve played so far, and he was good. Trying to get better, and get good enough to compete at that level is hard.”
Freitas has also had to take on a bigger role recently. Freitas has spent most of the season playing doubles with Bieri. Since the end of February, he has also played in seven singles matches for the Ducks.
“Fernando’s coming along great,” Kowalik said. “He’s doing a great job for us now in both singles and doubles, and he keeps getting better day by day. That’s what we want. We want guys to be gladiators out there.”
Before coming to Oregon, the Brazil native enjoyed moderate success in several professional tournaments.
“I did very well (playing pro tournaments) when I was 16. But when I was 18, I somehow wasn’t playing my best. And it got pretty expensive, so I decided to try and play some college tennis,” Freitas said.
Freitas then e-mailed Kowalik and started corresponding with the coach. When he first got to Oregon, Freitas says he had trouble adapting to the rigors of life as a student-athlete.
“Back in Brazil, I had all day to practice and I would practice twice a day, and do more workouts and some running,” Freitas said. “I’m a guy who really needs to practice. I don’t have that much of natural talent that I can just practice two hours a day and be fine.
“So at the beginning, it was hard trying to get used to this kind of life where you have to make time to study and to practice.”
Loza agreed with his teammate.
“In Mexico I used to have all day to play,” Loza said. “You come here, and you spend half the day studying or in classes, and you spend the other half practicing. Getting used to that was a little hard. It took a little extra, but I’m playing much better now.”
Loza and Freitas have taken to practicing together on their own time.
“I do extra workouts and hit around with Gustavo and Hugh (MacDonald),” Freitas said. “They work really hard and we help each other a lot. We just want to keep getting better.”