Oregon men’s tennis had a dominant Saturday defeating both Northern Arizona and Gonzaga 4-0 in their second doubleheader of the spring.
Oregon vs Northern Arizona
In the front end of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Ducks’ cruised to a quick 4-0 victory over Northern Arizona.
Head coach Nils Schyllander played his collegiate tennis at Northern Arizona, graduating in 1995. But, Oregon didn’t take it easy on the Lumberjacks.
“I take pride in what they do,” Schyllander said of his alma mater. “I talked to a couple of their guys and wished them good luck.”
Oregon jumped out to the lead early in doubles.
Cormac Clissold and Thomas Laurent came away with a 6-2 win to put the Ducks on the brink of taking the doubles point. Both remaining matches were close, but the Oregon pair of Akihiro Tanaka and Riki Oshima pulled out the 7-6(1) victory out of the No. 3 spot.
The Ducks put their foot on the gas pedal in singles, looking like a team with a mission to wrap up its match as quick as possible before welcoming in Gonzaga later in the afternoon.
“We definitely warmed up a little bit shorter. It’s hard, because in your mind, you kind of save yourself a little bit [for Gonzaga],” Schyllander said.
Tanaka carried his momentum from doubles into singles, rolling to a 6-0, 6-2 win to put Oregon up 2-0 on the match.
After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first set of his match, Clissold nearly let it slip away. However, the Australian recalibrated, winning the first set before taking the second to come away with the 7-5, 6-0 win. Clissold has now won 10 consecutive singles matches.
Playing out of the No. 1 spot, Laurent came away with the 6-3, 6-4 victory for the Ducks, who were already looking ahead to its upcoming match versus the Bulldogs.  
“You want to finish as fast as you can so you can be ready for the afternoon,” Laurent said. “We played solid throughout the entire match.”
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Oregon vs Gonzaga
The Ducks fueled up and were back in the driver’s seat to take on Gonzaga in the back-half of the doubleheader.
Picking up right where they left off, the Ducks matched their morning performance, sweeping the Bulldogs 4-0 in a gritty match.
“It’s never easy playing two matches in a day but I think we did pretty well,” Schyllander said.
Despite the lopsided score, proper rest and alignment was utilized to perfection today.
“We got a lot of playing time in,” Schyllander said. “We got to rotate and get some fresh players into doubles. Rotate singles a little bit.”
Simon Stevens and Ty Gentry were he fresh pair that got into this match, and they quickly downed Sam Feit and Bryan Husin 6-3 after resting in the doubles portion of the NAU match.
The other two doubles pairs were both locked in battle to secure the doubles point.
The No. 16 doubles pair of Thomas Laurent and Cormac Clissold were trailing Simón Homedes Dualde and Hunter Egger 3-2 early and Armando Soemarno and Charles Roberts were down 5-4 to Kyle Everly and Vincent Rettke.
Clissold and Laurent were able to bounce back however, taking four of five to win the match and the point and the doubles point for the Ducks, leaving Roberts and Soemarno’s match unfinished.
In singles play, Clissold continued his dominant day, downing Emilio Moreno 6-2, 6-0 and putting the Ducks up 2-0.
“If I feel good and am playing relaxed, I can beat anyone on any day,” Clissold said.
This brought his win-streak to 11 and put him two wins behind Gentry for the team-lead in wins and one behind his good friend Stevens which brought a smile to his face.
“That is pretty close,” Clissold said. “I will make some comments tonight and see what [Stevens] says and see if we can get some banter going before our next match.”
Clissold and Gentry play on neighboring courts at home, which creates a fun dialogue between the two.
“It’s always good having a nice, relaxed guy next to you to keep you cool in intense moments and help you out.”
Gentry took over for the team lead in wins after his one-sided 6-1, 6-0 victory over Everly bringing his own win-streak to 10.
“[Gentry] did a great job today.“ Schyllander said. “He took care of business and won all the big points. He was really, really solid. He didn’t put himself in any bad positions on the court. He was in charge the whole time.”
The Ducks will return to action this Wednesday, Feb. 28, to take on No. 37 Utah State at 4:30 in the Student Tennis Center.
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