The last time the Ducks battled the Cougars in April last year, Oregon needed a three-set marathon match from Carmen Seremeta to pull off a scrappy 4-3 victory.
This time around, the 41st-ranked Ducks left nothing up to chance as they handed No. 55 Washington State a firm 6-1 defeat at the Student Tennis Center on Saturday afternoon.
Seremeta’s anticipated number three singles rematch against Marjolein van de Ven – the Cougar she defeated last year – never materialized because Oregon coach Paul Reber boosted the sophomore into the number two singles spot a day before the match.
“You’ve got to put your lineup in order of strength,” Reber said. “And I just felt that with Carmen being 7-1 and Ceci (Olivos, who previously held the number two spot) being 4-4, if we kept it up at some point we’d be called on it, and another coach would say we weren’t playing in order of strength.
“And also it’s rewarding Carmen. Carmen’s playing very well, and you’ve got to give credit for that.”
Playing number two singles on Saturday was the highest that Seremeta has ever ventured in the Ducks rotation. But despite a spirited rally toward the end of the second set, Seremeta never quite got into a rhythm against Washington State’s Amy Toth.
Seremeta lost the first set 7-6, then found herself in a 1-5 hole in the second set, with Toth serving for the match.
Exhibiting some of the gritty resolve that has resulted in three come-from-behind wins already this season, Seremeta fought back to win the next three games before Toth finally managed to wrestle control of the set and took the match 7-6, 6-4.
“I give Carmen a lot of credit,” Reber said. “She battled her butt off, and what more can you ask for? I felt that Amy Toth played some of the best tennis I’ve ever seen her play. She came out and took it to Carmen.
“But even though she was down 5-1 in the second set, Carmen hung in there, battled and forced Toth to win the match as opposed to (Carmen) just losing it.”
Seremeta’s defeat would not matter in the end because the rest of the Ducks were firing on all cylinders.
Senior Monica Hoz de Vila avenged last year’s three-set defeat to Bianca Selaru by steamrolling the Cougar in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.
Claudia Hirt, Ceci Olivos and Anna Powaska all did their part securing wins for the Ducks (7-2 overall).
And Oregon’s leadoff woman, Dominika Dieskova, also got to exact revenge on the Cougars’ Ekaterina Burduli, who beat Dieskova in three sets last year.
In a battle of stark opposites – at 6 feet tall, lithe Dieskova is an all-court player who runs down balls and rushes the net, while the shorter, more robustly built Burduli favors a hard-hitting baseline game – Dieskova initially stumbled, losing the first set 6-3.
“I lost the first set by basically one break, and in the first set I was just going for as much as possible,” Dieskova said. “Then I realized ‘hey, I need to play longer points because she doesn’t move as well’ and that’s how I got into the game.
“I’d make her run around, I’d come to the net and make her come in because she’s not comfortable at the net.”
The second set was tight, with both players exchanging winners and service points. But Dieskova eventually managed to eek out a 7-6 win, and then went on to take the match 10-5 in the ensuing 10-point tiebreak.
Oregon men’s tennis
The Duck men found themselves blanked 7-0 by Washington in Seattle on Friday, but Director of Tennis and men’s coach Nils Schyllander said that the match was a lot closer than the scoreline implies.
“I was actually very pleased with that match,” Schyllander said. “The score might not reflect it, but we had a lot of opportunities in that match, and even the Washington coach commented afterwards that he never felt safe in that match. A lot of different things could have happened.”
On Saturday, the Ducks pulled off a 4-3 nailbiter against No. 49 San Diego State despite losing number one singles man Marco Verdasco in the middle of the doubles match.
Verdasco pulled an abdominal muscle while stretching to reach a ball during his doubles match against the Aztecs’ Robert Sabo and Billy Timu.
Oregon lost the doubles point, and Schyllander had to move his entire roster one spot up to accommodate Verdasco’s absence.
But it worked out well enough for the Ducks in the end.
Filling in for Verdasco at number one, Alex Cornelissen secured a 6-2, 6-4 win against Christian Groh. The Ducks’ three other points came from Ric Mortera at number three singles, and Francisco Gallardo and Gustavo Loza in the bottom roster spots.
“The guys responded really well after losing doubles, and for them to come up with the win against a team of San Diego State’s caliber –