Deep in the heart of Texas, No. 37 Oregon (15-8, 5-5 Pac-12) prepares for its first opponent in what it hopes to be a solid tournament run. Unfortunately for the Ducks, their first task is upsetting No. 18 Michigan (19-5, 10-1 Big Ten).

Oregon also received news on Wednesday that three of its young players received acknowledgment from the conference for their impressive seasons. Freshman Sophie Luescher received All-Pac-12 second team recognition while sophomore Myah Petchey and freshman Karin Young were awarded honorable mentions for their hardfought seasons.

Luescher, who’s 11-5 in singles play this season, has led the Ducks from the No. 1 spot in 2022, and her recognition should come as no surprise.

“We’ve needed every single player on this team,” Luescher said of Oregon’s tournament appearance. “Every player’s given something to help. Looking out for each [other] has been really important.”

Petchey and Young have also been staples of the Ducks’ successes in 2022. Petchey, in the No. 2 spot, has been tasked with taking down some of the conference’s best, and she’s held her ground both in doubles and singles play. Playing mostly as the Ducks’ No. 4 single, Young burst onto the scene in her freshman season and boasts a 14-2 record –– and now an honorable mention to go with it.

“We’ve been traveling a lot this year,” Young said on Oregon’s trip to Texas for the Austin regional. “We’ll have two days of practice down there so it won’t be too big of a deal with us getting down there early.”

Oregon will need the momentum built from this exciting news if it wants to slow down the red-hot Wolverines. Michigan is currently on a nine game winning streak and just brought a Big Ten tournament championship to Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Ducks will be thrown right into the fire in the NCAA tournament with an opening match against a talented team that hasn’t lost since April 1.

“We’ve been road tested,” Oregon coach Courney Nagle said. “We have been tested, and [we] are ready to go. [We] don’t want to go home after the first match.”

The task of stopping Michigan’s No. 19 Kari Miller and the rest of the Wolverine barrage will not be an easy one. It’s true that the Ducks have been road tested, but they haven’t been able to secure a win against a top-20 ranked team since March.

But everything is bigger in Texas, and perhaps that includes this team’s heart. The first chance to pull off an upset comes Friday at 11 a.m.