After twice putting themselves in position to win, the Oregon women’s tennis team lost two matches during the weekend.
The Ducks lost 6-1 to No. 7 Arizona State and 5-2 to No. 44 Arizona as they opened the Pacific-10 Conference schedule.
“We played pretty well,” head coach Jack Griffin said. “Both of these teams are very good, and at the end of the year, they’ll both be in the top 20.”
Against Arizona on Sunday, Oregon won two out of three doubles matches and jumped to a 1-0 lead before singles play.
Oregon freshman Ester Bak and senior Janice Nyland won a back-and-forth match, 9-7, over Maja Mlakar and Debbie Larocque of the Wildcats. Junior Monika Gieczys and senior Vickie Gunnarsson easily won their doubles match, 8-2.
“We played very tough in doubles,” Nyland said. “And we put ourselves in a good position to beat this team.”
The 1-0 lead quickly vanished for the Ducks in singles. Nyland lost her match to Mlakar 6-2, 6-2 and Bak lost her match 7-5, 6-3 to Marie-Pier Pouliot of the Wildcats. Oregon was then down 2-1. Gunnarsson won her match over Diane Hollands 6-3, 6-4 to even the score, 2-2.
“I was hitting the ball well and was getting a lot of depth,” Gunnarsson said. “I was being aggressive, and I made most of my shots to put her away.”
The Ducks looked to be in good position to win with the score tied at two and leading one set to none in each of the next three singles matches. Oregon only needed to win two of them.
But the Ducks failed to capitalize on the opportunity, losing all three.
“Our biggest problem today was the unforced errors,” assistant coach Nils Schyllander said. “We gave them too many free points, and the good teams will take advantage of them and make you pay.”
Oregon did play well in doubles, the matches that hurt them two weeks ago in Southern California.
“I am pleased that we were able to win the doubles point against two very good teams,” Griffin said.
“Our doubles game is there,” Nyland said. “Now we need to work on our singles, which is traditionally our strength.”
Gunnarsson’s win on Sunday was the only singles victory for the Ducks during the weekend. Against Arizona State on Friday, sophomores Davina Mendiburu and Courtney Nagle won their doubles match, 8-2, and Bak and Nyland won 8-6 to take the doubles point and a 1-0 lead.
The Ducks then lost all six singles matches in straight sets.
Oregon’s record is now 6-3 overall and 0-2 in the Pac-10. The Ducks host Nevada at 5 p.m. Thursday.
“I’m happy with our effort this weekend,” Schyllander said. “We put ourselves in position to beat two very good teams. If we continue to play with this intensity, especially in doubles, and clean up our errors, then we’ll be able to beat teams of this caliber.”