The season has come down to one match for the Oregon men’s tennis team — the dreaded Washington Huskies.
The Ducks travel to Seattle on Saturday to face No. 34 Washington to wrap up the regular season. It will also be their last chance to win a Pacific-10 Conference match this season.
Oregon lost to Washington, 4-3, at home in a nonconference match in early February. In that match, the Ducks jumped to an early lead by winning the doubles point, but lost four singles matches.
Last week, Oregon lost to No. 13 USC and No. 2 UCLA, but gained some experience and confidence that it’ll take into this weekend.
“We already played them this year, so we are familiar with them,” Oregon head coach Chris Russell said. “We are a more experienced team now than we were when we lost 4-3 to them.”

Women host UW, WSU
The Oregon women’s tennis team is hot right now and has two chances left to win its first Pac-10 match in more than two years.
The No. 44 Ducks host No. 19 Washington and No. 30 Washington State this weekend. Oregon lost at both schools in late February, but head coach Jack Griffin feels his team, which has won five matches in a row, is a different team now.
“We are coming off of very fun and emotional wins in Florida and Louisiana,” Griffin said. “We are stronger top to bottom now than we were when we played them earlier this season.”
Oregon, since adding newcomer freshman Daria Panova, has won five matches in the South, but has yet to beat a Pac-10 team.
“It would be great to get a Pac-10 win my senior year,” senior Janice Nyland said. “We feel we can play in this conference, and now it’s time to prove it.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams will head down to Ojai, Calif., on April 25 for the Pac-10 Championships.
Action begins Saturday at noon against Washington and Sunday at 11 a.m. against Washington State.
“We are really excited about this weekend’s matches,” Griffin said. “We have a chance to pull off an upset this weekend, and I hope we can get a crowd out there to cheer us on.”