Oregon women’s tennis (1-1) dropped a tough road loss in North Carolina to Tulsa 4-2 on Friday morning in its first road test of the season.
After having their previous two home matches postponed, the restless Oregon Ducks took the road for the first time in the young season and hit the east coast for the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Chapel Hill, NC. They fell to the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes early on Friday morning to open the tournament.
Oregon was swept 2-0 in doubles play to open the scoring. All three doubles matches saw the Ducks fall behind 4-1 and none saw Oregon mount a comeback. The closest the Ducks came to victory was the 6-4 loss that Tulsa dealt Allison Mulville and Lillian Mould.
The doubles match for Oregon’s European duo of Sophie Luescher (Switzerland) and Uxia Martinez Moral (Spain) ended with the Ducks down 5-3 after Tulsa clinched the doubles point.
The competition then turned to singles play with Oregon’s women needing to win at least four of the six singles matches. The Ducks got a pair.
Freshman Karin Young, playing in the No. 5 spot, got the Ducks on the board by sweeping her set against Tulsa’s Lily Hutchings, bringing the Oregon deficit to 3-1.
The final three matches all came down to the third sets. Oregon’s Sophie Luescher (No.1 spot), Lillian Mould (No. 3 spot) and Ares Teixido Garcia (No. 4 spot) all found themselves in must win sets, fighting to keep the Ducks alive. Luescher and Mould both rallied in their second sets to force the third while Teixido Garcia tried to bounce back from a second set loss.
Just as the Ducks comeback was starting to look possible, cheers and celebratory shouts arose from court three as Tulsa’s only senior Shura Poppe defeated Mould to seal the victory for Tulsa.
Teixido Garcia went on to win her set and bring the final score to 4-2. Luescher’s set went unfinished.
Oregon head coach Courtney Nagle’s return to North Carolina, where she spent four seasons as an assistant coach, was spoiled as she watched her program’s comeback fall short against a young Golden Hurricanes team.
Oregon will play again tomorrow at 3 p.m. PST in the consolation game of the ITA Kickoff Weekend tournament against either North Carolina or Charlotte.
