This weekend, the Oregon men and women’s tennis teams returned home for a pair of matches against highly touted opponents. The women beat No. 20 Washington, 4-3, on Friday afternoon to improve to 7-6 overall and 1-4 in the Pac-10. The men (9-4 overall) defended their home court with a 7-0 sweep over Portland.
Women beat No. 20 Washington, 4-3
The Oregon women, whose conference standing and confidence were at a season low, got a much-needed win against Washington. The Ducks were desperate after a tough stretch against strong Pac-10 opponents. Oregon had lost four straight matches — all on the road, and all to teams ranked in the top 50 nationally. The Ducks fell to No. 1 Stanford and No. 6 California on their trip to the Bay Area in late February before succumbing to No. 26 Arizona and No. 35 Arizona State last week in the desert.
“I’ve been coaching for 15 years, and the Pac-10 has won the national championship 12 years. The Pac-10, hands down, is the best conference in the country,” head coach Paul Reber said after the match. “And you know, that’s why kids come here. We may not be one of those big five, big six schools. But they come here to play that top competition.”
The women got off on the right foot in the doubles portion of their matchup, and took the point by virtue of victory in two of their three pairings. The sophomore duo of Patricia Skowronski and Pavlina Smatova won 8-3, while the freshman tandem of Rabea Stuckemann and Pascale Neubert beat their opponent 8-2.
In the singles portion, the Ducks had several great performances, but none was more impressive than the show put on by junior Trudie du Toit. The Canadian native was competing for the Ducks for the first time in five matches after removing herself from the lineup for a mental and physical respite.
Playing at the No. 3 slot in singles, du Toit dropped her first set to Vanja Radunovic, four games to six, and looked rusty after a prolonged absence from live competition. Du Toit then turned the tide, regaining the momentum in the second set to win 12 consecutive games. She came away with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-0 triumph and a point for the Ducks.
“To see her get back in the saddle and get a win, that was great,” Reber said. “She had been struggling mentally, so we took her out. She came to me (Thursday) and said she felt better. For her to reel off 12 straight games like that — that is huge for her.”
Oregon’s top singles player, No. 100 Pavlina Smatova, fell to No. 6 Denise Dy, 6-1, 6-3. But the Ducks got overpowering performances from Stuckemann (6-3, 6-0) and Neubert (6-0, 6-0) to come away with three singles victories and their first win against a ranked opponent since a Feb. 7, 2010, victory over No. 68 Nevada.
Men take down Portland, 7-0
The Oregon men, in contrast to the women, were coming off a bye week before their pairing. The rest obviously served the Ducks well, as they took the doubles point and all six singles matches against Portland to claim a 7-0 victory. The team had suffered consecutive road losses to No. 72 San Francisco and No. 19 Washington before taking on the Pilots.
“Obviously it felt good, especially to win 7-0. We’re still learning to play on the road. We’ve got a lot of freshmen, a lot of fresh faces,” head coach Nils Schyllander said. “We’re a lot more comfortable, here at home. When we go on the road, we don’t have our home crowd, our friends and all that. But we need to create that comfort.”
Despite the lopsided final score, the contest was highly competitive and featured several entertaining battles in the singles portion. Multiple pairings went the full three sets, the most dramatic a 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 win for Duncan MacDonald-Korth over Ratan Gill of Portland. Oregon claimed four additional points with victories over the Pilots by Baptiste Faynot, Robin Cambier, Jose Izquierdo and Aaron Clissold.
Freshman Alex Rovello continued his success in the No. 1 singles slot for the Ducks with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Michael Ferrero of Portland. He’s now 8-3 on the season in singles play. Rovello arrived in Eugene with high expectations after failing to drop a single set during his four-year stint at Cleveland High School in Portland. Rovello won four consecutive singles state championships in Oregon and was a top player nationally, but chose to play for his home-state Ducks. Despite a need for experience, he says he’s growing in his role with the team.
“Having coaches that really support you helps. Playing at No. 1, as a freshman, is hard to do,” Rovello said. “You’re playing top-notch guys, week in and week out. Against a team like this, you don’t have a lot of breathing room.”
The men are on break until March 21 when they travel to California to play St. Mary’s. The women return to action the same day when they head to Idaho to take on Boise State in a dual competition.
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