As the ESPN tournament selection show had predicted weeks earlier, the Oregon women’s tennis team – “a team moving in the wrong direction” – succumbed to this inverse momentum Friday and lost 4-0 to Brigham Young in the first round of the national tournament.
The Ducks went into the match having lost six of their last seven matches. The Cougars on the other hand were seeded second in the bracket, and had recently won the Western Athletic Conference title.
Until the last minute, Oregon also remained unsure of whether sophomore Claudia Hirt would be able to play.
Hirt injured her ankle earlier in April but practiced with the team last week and was slated to start at No. 6 singles and No. 2 doubles. Then the night before the match, she came down with a bladder infection and was once again unable to play.
Sophomore walk-on Tina Snodgrass started in place of Hirt.
The Ducks lost the doubles point right off the bat as Dolly Chang and Lauren Jones defeated Oregon’s No. 2 doubles pair of Anna Powaska and Monica Hoz de Vila 8-1, and the Ducks No. 3 doubles pair of Snodgrass and Carmen Seremeta fell 8-2 to Kristina Doerr and Sofia Holden.
At that point, the close No. 1 doubles match between Oregon’s Dominika Dieskova and Ceci Olivos, and the Cougars’ Anastasia Surkova and Jenny Miccoli was stopped at 4-3.
In singles, Dieskova was the first Duck off the court: She lost 6-3, 6-1 to Surkova, ranked 82nd in the nation.
“The beginning of the first set was okay,” Dieskova said. “Then she broke me, and I wasn’t really playing that well.
“She was dictating the game and I was basically reacting to whatever she was doing.”
After dropping the doubles point and having all six singles players lose their first sets, Oregon started out behind and never managed to gain any sort of foothold in the match.
“The first set went kind quick for everyone,” Dieskova said. “Carmen was the only one who played to 7-6. Everyone else just kinda lost it.”
Seremeta battled Doerr to 7-6 (7) in the first set of her No. 3 singles match and was behind 3-4 in the second set when the match was called because the Cougars had already won 4-0.
After Dieskova’s defeat, Snodgrass was the next to fall – 6-2, 6-1 to Chang.
With Powaska’s 6-1, 6-3 loss to Holden, the Ducks were officially eliminated from the national tournament.
Oregon seniors Hoz de Vila and Dieskova ended their senior campaigns with 22-15, and 13-19 singles records, respectively.
With a career record of 85-64, Dieskova also holds the distinction of being the program’s second winningest player behind All-American Daria Panova. Dieskova also holds the Oregon record for most matches played (149).
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