Despite jumping out to a great start, the Oregon men not only face a difficult schedule ahead, but also have dealt with some off-court issues recently.
The mixing of different personalities and cultural backgrounds on a squad featuring five Europeans and three Americans is becoming a learning experience for each player.
Oregon men’s head coach Chris Russell said players are becoming more accepting of who they are and are now bonding well together.
“They’re definitely more of a team than we ever had,” he said. “They really seem to like each other.
“I think they’ve had to learn and respect individual differences of each guy on the team because we’re not all the same and we all come from different places. So that’s been a challenge. We got a great understanding of teammates and coaches in general.”
Russell said he is encouraged by the cohesiveness that his team is demonstrating off the court and hopes it translates back to the court.
On the court, the coaching staff has encouraged its players all year to develop a style of play that best suits their respective games and utilize a game plan for every match.
“We’ve got a long ways to go,” Russell said. “I think you’re seeing some of the guys having some of the best results consequently having probably made the most progress of their game styles and their belief in their game styles.”
Those players include juniors Manuel Kost and Sven Swinnen. Combined, the duo has only lost one singles match. Swinnen holds a 6-1 dual singles record and Kost is still undefeated at 6-0.
Throughout the year, the trio of Kost, Swinnen and sophomore Thomas Bieri has shifted between the top three positions in the lineup. That element has allowed each to have an opportunity to earn success by playing his opponents’ top players. The three are a combined 16-4 in dual-match singles.
“We’ve had some benefit of playing a couple of other guys up higher,” Russell said. “They’ve got some confidence playing against better players. That’s been good to see.”
However, the true test lies ahead for the men when they confront two top 20 teams at home — No. 8 Rice and the Ducks’ Pacific-10 Conference opener against No. 18 Washington.

Women jump in polls
Even though the Oregon women had their nine-match winning streak snapped last weekend against fourth-ranked Washington, they still felt that they played well enough to win.
“It was a close, hard-fought match we played up there,” Oregon women’s head coach Nils Schyllander said. “We felt like we were in position to win.”
Nevertheless, their 9-1 start to the dual match season is becoming recognized nationally. The Ducks improved significantly in the polls this week by jumping 18 spots from No. 42 to No. 24.
So far this season, the women have dominated their opponents in doubles as they have assembled a 26-4 doubles record. However, Schyllander said singles is an area in which he would like to see his team improve.
“I think doubles right now is phenomenal,” Schyllander said. “We just need to make sure that we get more productive throughout the lineup in singles.”