Didn’t get a ticket for the basketball game this weekend? Don’t worry, there’s plenty of Duck tennis to fill the live-sports void.
The No. 49 women kick the weekend off with a match against No. 75 Sacramento State at 6:30 p.m. Friday. They continue the long weekend when they take on Pacific at 1 p.m. Saturday and No. 71 California-Irvine and Portland State at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., respectively, on Sunday.
Sacramento State is led by No. 51 Margarita Karnaukova and California-Irvine boasts the No. 60 doubles team of Jenny Bowman and Tiffany Chang.
The Ducks, led by No. 28 Daria Panova, are coming off a successful weekend at the Student Tennis Center, during which they won two matches without losing a set.
Panova is on a nine-game singles winning streak, while senior Monika Gieczys and junior Courtney Nagle are both 3-1 in the young regular season.
The No. 72 men will work their way into the big tennis weekend by taking on Portland on Saturday after winning two matches on the road last weekend.
“We are looking for guys to not expect things to be easy because of two recent wins,” head coach Chris Russell said. “We had guys that won last weekend that didn’t do all the things that they were supposed to, so hopefully they desire continued improvement.”
The Ducks will look to freshmen Thomas Bieri and Arron Spencer, both 4-0 in singles play, to continue their dominance as senior Oded Teig chases the Oregon singles victories record from the No. 1 spot.
Despite their recent successes, the Ducks aren’t looking past any opponents.
“We have a tough schedule,” Russell said. “So if we are processing the right stuff, we will be very competitive.
“We have a bunch of guys who have the ability to be playing at a different level come late March through May.”
No. 64 Manuel Kost returned from an abdominal injury last weekend to pick up wins in his first two matches of the regular season and sophomore Sven Swinnen looks to improve on his own two game win streak.
All matches will be held at the Student Tennis Center, located behind McArthur Court.