Productive weekends are becoming commonplace for Oregon tennis.
The Ducks men’s team finished its third tournament this month while the women completed their first action of the season as both competed in the Omni Hotels ITA Northwest Regional Tournament.
“We made a lot of progress,” men’s head coach Chris Russell said. “We realized our strengths and exposed some of our
weaknesses.”
Very few of those weaknesses were exposed in the early rounds of the tourney. Ducks Chris King, Jason Menke, Thomas Bieri, and Junaid Hossain all won in straight sets in the opening round at Moraga.
After receiving first-round byes, No. 7-seeded Manuel Kost took care of Sacramento State’s Jacob Silva 6-2, 6-2, while No. 9 Oded Teig defeated Dustin Ilic of Fresno State and Sven Swinnen, seeded 17th, took St. Marys’ Rafael Lopez in straight sets as well.
The first day of competition also saw three of the five doubles teams advance to
the second round.
“We played well on certain days,” Russell said. “And didn’t back it up well the next day.”
On day two, Teig and Kost advanced to the fourth round in straight sets and all three doubles teams continued their dominance through to the round of 16. Kost finished his day by beating Cal’s Robert Kowalczyk 7-5, 6-2 while Teig fell to No. 11-ranked David Martin of Stanford.
Monday, Kost was unable to top Washington’s Alex Vlaski, the No. 15-ranked player in the nation, despite beating him twice last year. The doubles teams also fell in hard-fought matches.
“At this point in the season, it is about playing a lot of matches,” Russell said. “Our toughness on the court needs to improve. It comes from the heart.”
The Oregon women also gained the experience they were looking for at the ITA.
“I am very happy with the way we played,” head coach Nils Schyllander said. “There were a lot of bright spots.”
Two of those bright spots were the play of Daria Panova and Courtney Nagle. Panova reached the quarterfinals and Nagle bested Washington’s number one player, Claire Carter, in straight sets.
“They were very hungry to compete,” Schyllander said of his young team’s play in Palo Alto. “We showed we are playing
smart tennis.”
In doubles, the Panova/Davina Mendiburo and Nagle/Julie Merle teams were able to advance to the round of 16 before being ousted by two teams from California.
This weekend the women head to San Diego for the USD Tennis Classic and the men host the Duck Classic in Eugene.
Ryan Heath is a freelance writer for the Emerald.