It was a weekend that will go down into Oregon tennis history. The weekend when the men’s tennis team broke the streak and started a new one.
Oregon has always been known as the “cellar dweller” in Pacific-10 conference tennis. But no longer. The Ducks made a statement this weekend: Oregon is a force to be reckoned with.
Coming into this weekends matchups as a heavy underdog, Oregon needed to win three of its five remaining Pac-10 matches to even think about the NCAA tournament.
The desert schools provided a major obstacle in the way of the Ducks and their NCAA hopes.
Oregon began its historic weekend on Friday with a gut-wrenching win over No. 55 Arizona.
“Without a doubt, this is the biggest victory for me as a coach,” head coach Chris Russell said. “The guys have always fought their tails off for us. I truly believe these guys know they can win at this level. This win just solidifies this belief.”
Every match proved to be crucial in the 4-3 win, as it was decided by the very last set.
Freshman Oded Teig was the hero of game one. After teaming with sophomore Thomas Schneiter for a 9-7 doubles win, Teig broke a 3-3 tie by winning his match against Michel Stopa.
“It says a lot about Oded’s character,” Russell said. “He’s a building block for our future. Oded’s won some big matches against some big schools this year.”
Teig lost his first set 6-4 but stormed back, taking the next two.
Schneiter and senior Joaquin Hamdan also played key roles in the upset victory. Both were victorious in doubles and both earned solid wins in singles play as well.
Hamdan defeated Tom Lloyd, 6-4, 6-1, and Schneiter disposed of Jean-Noel LaCoste, 6-4, 6-3.
The win was Russell’s first in the Pac-10 as a coach, and Oregon’s first since 1995.
The Ducks were even more of an underdog against No. 63 Arizona State Sunday. Oregon had won Pac-10 matches before, but not consecutively, and certainly not on the same weekend.
The match played out much like the Arizona contest.
Oregon began by taking the ever-important doubles portion. Senior Guillermo Carter and Leslie Eisinga got back on track with a convincing 8-3 win over Matt Klinger and Mitchell Bowen. Teig and Schneiter played in their second overtime doubles match of the weekend, beating Alex Osterrieth and Andrew Golub, 9-8(7) .
Eisinga and Schneiter won their singles matches quickly to put the Ducks up 3-1. This time, Hamdan was the hero of the day, clinching the match with a three-set win.
Although he lost his first set to the Sun Devils’ Pim Van Mele 6-2, Hamdan stormed back, winning the next two matches 7-6, 6-3.
Carter put the finishing touches on the win with a come-from-behind victory over No. 82 Osterrieth. Final score: 5-2 Oregon.
“We showed some intensity, battling from being down one set in the last three singles matches,” Russell said. “To come back and win two of those was huge.”
Oregon improves to 11-6 overall, 2-3 Pac-10, with four matches remaining. Next weekend, top-ranked UCLA and No. 18 Southern California come to Eugene.
“I feel really confident about UCLA and USC next week,” Russell said. “Our guys are defining the level that we expect them to play; with that sort of intensity and focus and the desire to win every point.”
The women’s team is another story.
After achieving a respectable 5-5 record at the midway mark, the Ducks have gone into a tailspin, losing nine of their last ten matches.
Oregon headed to Texas for two non-conference matches against Rice and Baylor hoping to halt the recent slide and pick up momentum for a possible post-season run.
Unfortunately, Rice and Baylor had other plans.
The Ducks lost 7-2 against Rice on Friday. Two freshman led the Ducks. No. 58 Monika Geiczys and Jeanette Mattson both won.
“It was a difficult day for us; we’re just being overwhelmed at this point,” Griffin said in a released statement. “We had a lot of close matches but didn’t get it done. I’m disappointed that some of us didn’t show up.”
On Sunday, Oregon was out-gunned by No. 18 Baylor.
Sophomore Janice Nyland’s upset of the Bears’ No. 100 Vida Mulec was the Ducks’ lone win of the match. Nyland has won four of her last five matches, including two over top-100 opponents.
“We’re disappointed,” Griffin said. “We had some good individual efforts, but it wasn’t enough.”
Oregon has two matches left before the Pac-10 championships on April 27.