A sense of disappointment characterized the Oregon men’s tennis team Sunday, just days after its huge upset win against 18th-ranked Washington.
The 45th-ranked Ducks (7-4 overall) dropped two of the last three singles matches en route to a 4-3 loss to No. 27 Minnesota at the Student Tennis Center.
Minnesota started off by winning its first doubles point of the year despite experimenting with two new doubles teams. Oregon head coach Chris Russell said his team did not come out with the energy needed to set the tone for the rest of the match.
“It is up to them to take some responsibility for increasing their intensity level right from the beginning in doubles,” Russell said. “We squandered an opportunity.”
The Oregon duo of junior Sven Swinnen and sophomore Arron Spencer had their undefeated record snapped after losing to Minnesota’s Dusan Tabak and Avery Ticer, 8-6 at the No. 1 position. Swinnen and Spencer moved to 10-1 on the season.
At the No. 2 position, junior Manuel Kost and sophomore Thomas Bieri won their eighth doubles match together by defeating Aleksey Zharinov and Brian Lipinski, 8-5. The Ducks’ Chris King and Markus Schiller lost at the No. 3 spot, 8-6.
The men’s ability to take the first dual match point has been indicative of their play later in their singles contests. Russell said his players need to realize that starting off a match well is important for them as a team and for their psyche.
“Every match we have lost, we’ve lost the doubles point,” Russell said. “They’ve got to see that maybe they don’t bounce back well after losing the doubles point.”
The Ducks came back to tie up the match at 1-1 when Bieri frustrated Ticer in a straight set victory, 6-2, 6-3, at the No. 3 position. Bieri improved his singles record to 6-4.
At the second position, Kost battled a cold that had plagued him all week. His opponent, 59th-ranked Chris Wettengel, took advantage to hand Kost his second straight singles loss, 6-1, 7-5.
“He attacked and saw (the edge),” Kost said. “He made me run from corner to corner. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Oregon evened up the score at 2-2 behind Swinnen’s triumph over Aleksey Zharinov, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), at the No. 1 position. Swinnen’s consistency has been a bright spot for the men the whole year in compiling a 20-2 overall record.
With three matches left to play, the Ducks could not conjure two more victories for the win. Senior Chris King was upended at the sixth position in three sets to freshman Brian Lipinski, 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, to give Minnesota a 3-2 lead.
The Golden Gophers sealed the victory when Andres Osorio beat Oregon sophomore Markus Schiller, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3). Schiller complained to officials in the second set when Osorio’s heavy grunting broke his own concentration during play. However, Schiller said afterwards that Osorio’s style did not bother him.
“I wasn’t really affected by that,” Schiller said. “But he was very tough and made a lot of balls. He came up with some good shots and important points.”
The men will have next weekend off and hope to use that time to work on their individual games, Russell said.
“As a team, they’ve got to do whatever they can to get more fired up and more focused,” he said.

California blues
The Oregon women lost their fifth straight dual match after being upended by UCLA, 6-1, on Saturday.
The lone win came from junior Daria Panova, who overcame UCLA’s 13th-ranked Jackie Carleton in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4).
Despite winning just three dual match points in their last five matches, the women remain confident about their play, Oregon head coach Nils Schyllander said.
“We competed really well … in every match (against UCLA),” Schyllander said. “Some of the scores don’t reflect that but we have a real positive feeling coming out of this.”