Coming off one of its biggest wins in years, No. 23 Texas Tech proved to be too much for Oregon women’s tennis, earning a 4-3 win over the Ducks at the Student Tennis Center in Eugene.
With five points finalized and Oregon down a point, both Bridget Mihulka and Karin Young needed to win their sets to keep the Ducks’ hot streak alive.
The run in peril was one that saw the Ducks pick up five-straight wins to start the season. Texas Tech entered on the heels of its first top-10 win in seven years.
Young fought well, but ultimately fell to Hhahola, sending the Ducks home with a loss.
Mihulka and TTU’s Arina Oreshchenkova went back and forth all day, with their matchup going to a 6-6 tiebreak. Mihulka would close out the set on top, leaving Young and Mariia Hhahola facing off to decide the match.
“Doubles,” head coach Courtney Nagle said postgame on what the number one thing she wants her team to improve on going forward is.
“It was a great battle, I think all the way from the beginning to the end,” Nagle said. “I thought we did a really great job in the singles of digging our heels in and making it a great match.”
Texas Tech started the day hot, defeating Oregon 2-1 in the three doubles matches and earning the first point of the day.
Hlahola and Avelina Sayafetdinova defeated Oregon’s Patsy Daughters and Young 6-4 in the first match. Kate Dmitrichenko and Hailey Murphy had a similar result for the Red Raiders (4-1), defeating The Ducks’ Avery Jennings and Julia Visaya 6-3.
Oregon bounced back in the unnecessary third match, with a strong performance from Tilde Jagare and Juliet Santitto besting Andreeea Lila and Jermine Sherif — the nation’s No. 33 ranked doubles team — of TTU. Jagare and Santitto were in command, rarely trailing en route to a 6-2 win.
As the early single-set matches began to roll in, it was clear that Texas Tech had an early advantage. The Red Raiders rolled off to commanding 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 and 6-1 wins over the Ducks. Andreea Lila bested Daughters 2-0 and Hailey Murphy delivered a commanding two set win over Candela Aparisi.
Tilde Jagare continued her strong Saturday by besting Elena Daskalova in two sets. Jagare improved her overall results to a strong 10-3 overall to begin the set and move the score to.
“It’s a great experience for our younger players to play a team like this and take them the distance,” Nagle said.
Marjorie Souza grabbed a win in two sets over Sayfetdinova moving the score on the day to 3-2 in the Red Raiders’ advantage. Oregon would need third-set wins from both Mihulka and Young to grab a win on the day.
Mihulka’s tiebreak-set win evened the score at three and turned all eyes to Young and Hhahola facing off in the final set of the day.
“She did a great job of battling throughout,” Nagle said of Mihulka. “She came back, fought back, I’m very proud of her effort today.”
Hhahola quickly took a 3-1 advantage before an expertly placed ball ended the day in the Red Raiders’ advantage.
“I think we have to look at this match, learn from it,” Nagle said. “I know we lost, but there’s a lot of really good things that came from this match that will give us belief against other teams we will play in other situations.”
Oregon will return to action on February 14, at home against Arizona State.
