After the Oregon men’s tennis team dropped the doubles point against Loyola Marymount University, head coach Nils Schyllander was displeased with the team’s performance.

“I was very disappointed with our energy and effort,” Schyllander said. “The guys just showed up and thought it was won before it started. We were able to get on them and kick into gear, but no excuse to come out that slow.”
Oregon took the coach’s message to heart, and swept the six singles points to win the match over LMU 6-1.
Ty Gentry took the first singles victory by making quick work of Diego Nava in a 6-2, 6-2 win. It was Gentry’s 10th straight win and his seventh at the No. 3 position. Thomas Laurent, coming off a loss in doubles, commanded a 6-3, 6-0 win over LMU’s No. 1 singles player, Lukas Moenter.

At the No. 2 position, Emmanuel Coste handled Nick Borchenko 6-3, 6-1. At times, Borchenko seemed shocked at Coste’s ability to return some of his shots, at one point laughing to no one in particular: “That’s a joke.”

Josh Charton won 7-5, 6-2 over Max Kaiser. The longest match of the day was between Riki Oshima and Thein Nguyen. Oshima lost the first set 6-7, then won the next 6-3. The two played a 10-point tiebreaker, which Oshima won 10-5.  
The Ducks had to make changes to start doubles play. Armando Soemarno did not play due to illness, so his partner Charles Roberts played with Riki Oshima on short notice. Soemarno and Roberts are the No. 42 doubles team in the nation, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

“It’s tough, because I’ve been playing with Armando for a very long time,” Roberts said. “Riki and Armando play with very different styles. Armando’s more aggressive going in hard, Riki is more a ground stroke player.”

However, the new pairing ended up being the best option for Ducks with the doubles point. Moenter and Thien Nguyen won handily 6-2 over Oregon’s No. 2 doubles team of Lourent and Emmanuel Coste. Gentry and Josh Charlton played close matches, but lost.

In singles play, Roberts built a large lead over Austin Di Giulio, going up 4-0. But Di Giulio stormed back, cutting the lead to 5-4. Roberts eventually won 6-4, then finished the second set 6-2.

“We’ve been working on his shot tolerance a lot,” Schyllander said. “He used to be a one-two punch kinda player, and now he can hang in there five to six shots before he pulls the trigger so he gets in a better position when he’s gonna finish points.”

At 9-1, Oregon has won its last six matches at home. The team will travel to Des Moines, Iowa, to take on Drake next Friday.

Follow August Howell on Twitter @howell_august