A sigh of relief escapes and a rematch with Stanford is born.
What should have been a dominating first round win turned into a battle to stay alive on Wednesday as the Oregon Ducks (15-7, 5-5 Pac-12) edged out Colorado (8-14, 1-9 Pac-12) 4-3 to move on to the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.
Singles play from the No. 1, 3, 4 and 5 spots saved Oregon’s championship hopes after sloppy doubles play gave Colorado a 1-0 lead.
Within half an hour of starting the match, two of the three Oregon doubles duos fell to the Buffaloes and thrust the Ducks into an early hole. Sophie Luescher and Uxia Martinez Moral dropped their set 6-4 and Myah Petchey and Allison Mulville lost 6-2.
Petchey and Mulvilles’ days didn’t get any better as both got swept in their singles matches to their Buffalo opponents. Petchey, in the No. 2 spot, fell 6-2 and 6-4 to Colorado’s Caroline Pozo and Mulville, in the No. 6 spot, lost her two sets 6-4 and 6-0.
Cue the common theme for the season coming in to save the season; freshman success. Luescher, in the No. 1 spot, dominated Colorado’s Antonia Balzert 6-2 and 6-1 across her two sets to bring the score to 2-1.
Karin Young, Oregon’s other standout freshman, added to her remarkable first season with another impressive outing in the No. 4 spot. Her 6-2 and 6-0 wins over Megan Forster gave the Ducks their first point of the tournament and sparked the first round comeback.
Ares Teixido Garcia also picked up a sweep over Maria Campos to give Oregon a crucial point in what was nearly a season ending disaster.
A bounce back win from Uxia Martinez Moral clinched the final point and broke the 3-3 tie to push Oregon across the threshold of victory and secure a rematch with Stanford, the No. 3 seed, on Thursday evening.
In their first matchup with the Cardinal, the Ducks fell 6-1 as Stanford snapped Oregon’s seven game winning streak back on March 4th.
Oregon will need to step up its play from today’s win over the 11 seed Colorado in order to pull off an upset over Stanford (14-5, 7-2 Pac-12) and advance deeper into the tournament. Tomorrow’s match is set for 6 p.m PT.
