The Ducks tennis teams open their dual match seasons this weekend with three at the Student Tennis Center on Saturday.
A depleted women’s team takes on Montana State and Portland, while the men will face Linfield College.
No Margin for Injury
This time last week, there were eight players on the Oregon women’s roster. Now, the Ducks are left with an even six: the exact number needed to field the singles positions required in a dual match.
Oregon will start the season without freshmen Erika Januskova and Simone Templeton.
Women’s coach Paul Reber said Templeton was on physician-mandated medical leave for the rest of the season as a result of undisclosed personal reasons.
On the other hand, Canadian-born Januskova quit the team on Tuesday, also citing personal reasons.
“She really just wasn’t happy here,” Reber said. “Things weren’t working out, she was homesick, and she has a boyfriend in Boston whom I think she wants to be closer to.
“She felt that this was the best thing for her, and I told her ‘look, you’re not the first kid to go away to college and be unhappy and leave.’”
Yet none of the players seem too perturbed by their small roster. In fact, the Ducks are now back in familiar territory: the same six players remaining on this year’s team are the same players who played the bulk of Oregon’s matches last season.
“I don’t think it’s bad because we were a good team last year,” sophomore Claudia Hirt said. “Of course it’s better that you have more players, but now we can really focus on ourselves and on the team, which is kinda good. ”
Reber is unwilling to even classify the situation as a disadvantage.
“I don’t even consider this an adversity,” he said. “As coaches go, we just have to be really smart about how hard we push them, and not push them to the point that we get injuries.
“But this is a very mature team. And the fact that they get along so well and that they’ve been through all this before makes it a lot easier to get through the year with six kids.”
The Schyllander Effect
With their 11-player-strong roster, the Oregon men’s tennis team stands in direct contrast to the short-staffed women’s team this season.
The Ducks lost the top half of their lineup to graduation last year, but have replaced the dominating presence of Thomas Bieri, Markus Schiller and Arron Spencer with a whole corps of freshmen.
Geoff Embry, Stephen Weichert, Francisco Gallardo and Marco Verdasco have been with the team since the beginning of the school year, but Ric Mortera and Alexander Cornelisen only joined the Ducks this term.
“You never replace the experience, but I think the people who’ve come in are a very talented group,” Director of Tennis and men’s coach Nils Schyllander said. “Look at the basketball team right now: Those guys came in together, they grew up together, and look how well they’re doing.”
If his results from last year are any indication, Schyllander – who coached the women’s team for four years before taking over the men’s team this year – possesses a rare ability to squeeze potential out of young, raw talent.
Schyllander led a freshman-loaded squad of Oregon women to a 13-10 overall record last season. Then-junior Dominika Dieskova and freshman Ceci Olivos also made it to the doubles category NCAA tournament, while first-year players Claudia Hirt and Carmen Seremeta took the doubles title in the invitational draw of the Pacific-10 Conference Championships in Ojai, Calif.
Now, Schyllander is tasked with recreating that same winning mentality within the young Duck men’s team.
“We’ve got a very talented and very enthusiastic group, and I feel like we’re practicing with a lot of passion now,” Schyllander said. “With so many freshmen, we don’t know what to expect yet. But the talent’s there, and the NCAA tournament is always the goal.”
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