It wasn’t until two and a half hours into Sunday’s contest that Quinn Vandecasteele closed out his singles match and gave the Ducks their first lead. But once Oregon (7-5, 0-1 Pac-12) took a 3-2 lead, the momentum had shifted away from the Portland Pilots (3-5) and the Ducks seemed destined to close out the comeback and hand Portland its fourth consecutive loss, 4-2.

“It started off a little slow,” Vandecasteele said. “Staying energized and trusting your game is always the key.”

Moments after, an incredible upset win by Ryoma Matsushita over Portland’s No. 114 ranked Nicolas Ocana sealed the victory for Oregon. After dropping his first set 6-4, Matsushita flipped a switch and roared back for a 6-1 second set equalizer and a 6-1 third set clincher. His point pushed the No. 44 ranked Ducks to a 4-2 lead and secured their fifth home win of 2022. 

Again, Matsushita brought the energy.

“It’s awesome,” Vandecasteele said. “Anytime any of us are struggling for energy we can just go over to his court, and he’s getting loud. It’s great to have that energy in the building.”

After dropping the doubles point, Oregon was going to need a comeback in singles play to erase an early deficit and rewrite the skid that the Ducks have been on lately. 

Powerhouse doubles duos clashed on court five to determine the doubles point winner. With Ivailo Keremedchiev and Yousseff Kadiri securing the first set for the Ducks and Issa Yoshida and Ocana winning their match for the Pilots, the crucial ice breaking point rested on the shoulders of Joshua Charlton and Vandecasteele.

Charlton and Vandecasteele came into today’s match as the country’s No. 21 ranked duo. They faced the No. 44 pairing of Sema Pankin and Eleftherios Neos. The Pilots jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, but Vandecasteele and Charlton rallied to force extra frames. But the rally fell short as Pankin and Neos prevailed 7-6 in extra frames. 

1-0 Portland. 

It seemed all the momentum had swayed to the Pilots. Oregon coach Nils Schyllander often harps onthe difficulty of winning four of six. Four Ducks got it done on Sunday. 

Jesper Klov-Nilsson won his singles match in the No. 4 slot, sweeping Yoshida 6-2 in both sets and tying the match at 1.

Keremedchiev dropped his set to Portland’s Julien Penzlin to bring back the Pilot’s lead at 2-1. 

Luke Vandecasteele finished off an impressive singles set sweep 6-3 and 6-2 to bring the Ducks back to a 2-2 tie. Then little brother Quinn and Matsushita closed out the win for Oregon.

The Ducks will play again Sunday night at 5 p.m. PT against No. 70 Montana State (12-5) in Oregon’s last home match of March. 

“It’s always been very fun, competing here at home,” Quinn Vandecasteele said. “Doing damage while we’re still in our building is going to be fun.”