The Ducks suffered an emotional loss to No. 22 UCLA on Sunday. Tied 3-3, Riki Oshima lost to Ben Goldberg in tiebreakers in the final set of their singles match, which clinched the win for the Bruins. This loss capped off a disappointing weekend which saw the team lose to No. 1 USC on Friday.

Oregon got off to a strong start in doubles play. Oshima and Jesper Klov Nilsson set the tone early, quickly dispatching Bryce Pereira and Patrick Zahraj, 6-1. In a ranked battle, No. 11 Joshua Charlton and Ty Gentry defeated No. 24 Keegan Smith and Govind Nanda, 6-4, to secure the doubles point. 

“I needed to get my mind right and clear my head from a couple of rough matches,” Gentry said. “I felt like I responded well.”

In singles play, the matches were highly contested and the entire meet lasted nearly four hours. However, UCLA was able to put up a win early when No. 8 Smith beat No. 19 Charlton, 6-2, in both sets. 

UCLA took its first lead of the match when Mathew Tsolakyan defeated Brandon Lam in three sets. Lam who replaced Klov-Nilsson in singles play, struggled in the first set losing, 6-3. However he dominated his second set, 6-1, before falling in tiebreakers, 7-4, in the final set. 

On Court 5, Luke Vandecasteele, fresh off of his first Pac-12 win on Sunday, fell to Zahraj in two sets. He lost the first, 7-5, and lost the second set in tiebreakers, falling 7-3. 

But Oregon was able to bounce back and scored two wins to tie the game. First Gentry defeated No. 124 Drew Baird. He won the first set ,7-5, and lost, 6-4, in the second set. However, in the final set Gentry grinded out a close 7-5 win to keep the Ducks alive. 

After winning the first set, 9-7, in tiebreakers, Emmanuel Coste lost to No. 28 Nanda, 6-2, in the second set in a demoralizing defeat. However, Coste was able to tie the match up again as he dominated the final set winning, 6-3. 

“His fight was great,” head coach Nils Schyllander said. “He grinded it out.”

It came down to Oshima and Goldberg. Oshima beat Goldberg in the first set, 7-5. He had a chance to potentially end the match hours before the actual ending as he held a big lead over Goldberg in the second set. But Goldberg clawed his way back to 7-5 in tiebreakers. During the final set, with all other matches completed, all eyes were on them. They played a back-and-forth match, but once again Goldberg prevailed in tiebreakers, winning 7-1. 

“We played well,” Schyllander said. “It could have been over an hour ago. It is what it is. Riki fought his tail off.”

The Ducks have now lost three straight matches. They will play New Mexico on Friday in Eugene.