The nine-match winning streak came to a halt for the Oregon women.
After defeating Washington State in a close 4-3 victory Friday, the Ducks (9-1 overall, 2-0 Pacific-10 Conference) on Saturday suffered their first loss of the season, 5-2, to No. 5 Washington.
All year long, the women have been making it a habit to take the first point of a dual match by winning at least two of the three doubles contests. From then on, they have carried that momentum into the remaining six singles matches to finish off their opponent.
That trend was broken by the Huskies.
Oregon head coach Nils Schyllander talked during the week leading up to the match-up about how the matchup was a chance to showcase his squad against a nationally ranked team. The Ducks took their shot and started the match off well by taking all three doubles contests.
However, the women were not able to overcome the Huskies’ strong singles, featuring three of the country’s top-90 players.
Doubles were led by Oregon’s 16th-ranked duo of junior Daria Panova and senior Courtney Nagle, who upended Washington’s 29th-ranked team of Claire Carter and Dea Sumantri, 8-4. The team of Panova and Nagle improved their doubles record to 6-2.
“I thought we played awesome doubles,” Schyllander said. “In singles, Washington stepped up when they needed to. I felt it was a winnable match — it just didn’t go our way. We let a good opportunity slip away.” Three Ducks headed into the contest with perfect singles records, but all three came out with their first loss of the year.
That included Panova, the No. 8 singles player in the country, who lost at the No. 1 position to the 35th-ranked Carter in three sets, 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (5).
Senior Davina Mendiburu also suffered her first defeat, against Dinka Hadzic at the No. 4 position in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0. Mendiburu had not lost one singles match the entire year dating back to fall preseason tournaments. Her record now stands at 9-1.
At the No. 6 position, junior Ester Bak earned the lone singles win by triumphing over Monika Kolbovic, 6-2, 7-5.
Against Washington State, the doubles portion proved to be the tiebreaker as the two teams split the six singles matches.
“It was a good win for us,” Schyllander said. “It was a tough place to play, but we came through when we needed it.”
The two games will not count toward the conference record, but the teams will play in Eugene next month.
The schedule only gets tougher for the Ducks when they travel to the Bay Area to take on a pair of top-five schools. The women resume conference play to face No. 1 Stanford on Friday and No. 4 California on Saturday.

Men’s weekend called off
The Oregon men’s matches against host UC-Santa Barbara and No. 22 Oklahoma State in Santa Clara, Calif. were canceled due to rain.
The Ducks (6-1 overall) return home to face No. 23 Rice on Friday and play the first match in the conference against No. 10 Washington on Saturday at the Student Tennis Center.