After losing six straight matches and dropping out of the national rankings, the Oregon women’s tennis team traveled to the East Coast with hopes of turning its season around.
It did.
The Ducks beat three teams last week, including an upset victory over No. 22 Florida International. They lost two out of three doubles matches but won four singles matches to defeat the Golden Panthers, 4-3.
Oregon sophomores Courtney Nagle and Davina Mendiburu upset No. 27 Anneliese Rose and Cristina Campana of FIU, 8-4, for the Ducks’ only doubles win.
The addition of freshman Daria Panova allowed head coach Jack Griffin to adjust the lineup. Panova lost 6-4, 6-3, but played at No. 1 singles, which allowed the other players to compete at lower levels than they had earlier in the season.
Senior Janice Nyland, junior Monika Gieczys, senior Vickie Gunnarsson and Nagle won matches as the Ducks earned their most important victory of the season.
“It’s a great win for us. They just beat a top-10 team (No. 9 Tennessee) last week,” Griffin said. “It will be huge when it comes to NCAA Tournament time. It was an unbelievable team effort.”
Earlier in the week, Oregon beat South Florida, 6-1, winning all six singles matches.
“We really took it to them in singles,” Griffin said.
Oregon started the week with a 4-3 victory over Central Florida by winning all three doubles matches and three singles matches. Gieczys and Gunnarsson led the Ducks and finished a combined 6-0 on the trip. Panova is 2-1 in her short Oregon career.
The Ducks improved to 10-9 overall (0-8 Pacific-10). The team will travel to Louisiana State on April 13 and Tulane on April 14. On the following weekend, Oregon will wrap up the season and search for its first Pac-10 victory against Washington and Washington State.
Men struggle in Pac-10 play
The Oregon men’s tennis team brought an 11-2 record into a weeklong California trip and met its toughest competition of the season.
The No. 62 Ducks went 1-3, including two Pac-10 losses, over the week. No. 5 Stanford and No. 20 California shut out Oregon to drop the Ducks’ record to 12-5 (0-2 Pac-10).
Against the Golden Bears, the Ducks lost all six singles matches and three doubles matches. Oregon freshman Manuel Kost, junior Oded Teig and sophomore Greg Dubourdieu won their first sets, but were unable to earn victories.
They played worse against the Cardinal, with only Dubourdieu forcing a third set.
Oregon began the trip with a 6-1 loss to No. 74 Santa Clara. The Ducks lost two out of three doubles matches with Kost and sophomore Chris King winning 8-4. Dubourdieu won his singles match, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, to score the only point for Oregon in the contest.
“They were better at the details than we were,” head coach Chris Russell said. “They made fewer mistakes.”
Oregon beat Pacific, 6-1, before starting the Pac-10 season. They won five out of six singles matches and all three doubles. Teig won 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 at No. 1 singles to lead the Ducks.
The Ducks will play next on Friday and Saturday at home against Arizona State and Arizona. The following week, they host Southern California and UCLA before finishing the season at Washington on April 20.
“We played better today,” Russell said after the loss to California. “But we’re looking forward to playing at home.”