The men’s and women’s Oregon tennis teams are bound for Northern California this weekend to take on stiff competition in their first tournaments as full teams.
The men are heading to Moraga and the women will be in Palo Alto for the Omni Hotels ITA Northwest Regional Championships.
Both tournaments will feature the best teams in the region, including Pacific-10 powers California, Stanford, Washington and Washington State.
“We have a lot more to prove,” men’s head coach Chris Russell said. “I think everyone will be playing at a higher level.”
All of the men have had outside competition in separate tournaments this year, but for many of the women it will be their first look at this year’s teams.
“This is our first tournament,” women’s head coach Nils Schyllander said. “We are ready for some outside competition.”
Duck sophomore Daria Panova, No. 44 in the nation, leads a young team into Palo Alto with one of the main goals being to see how the freshman do in their first college competition.
“At this point in the season it is more than just wins and losses,” Schyllander said. “It is important to see how our younger players will step up.”
On the men’s side, No. 63 Manuel Kost, Oded Teig and Sven Swinnen will see their first action since the beginning of October when they competed in the Icy Hot ITA All-American Championships. Plus, junior Chris King will be looking to keep his momentum after taking the championship of the flight two backdraw at the San Diego All-College Tournament.
The women begin play on Friday while the men start on Saturday.