Less than a week after the preseason national rankings were released, the No. 34 Oregon women’s tennis team is competing in the Pac-10 Indoor Championships this weekend in Seattle.
“The competition doesn’t get any tougher than this,” head coach Nils Schyllander said. “It’ll give us a good chance to see where we’re at.”
The tournament will feature all nine of the Pac-10 schools that compete in women’s tennis, including No. 1 Stanford. Every team is ranked in the top 35.
“As a team, to be preseason ranked in the top 35 shows that our program is starting to gain some national respect, which is great,” Schyllander said. “But we are fully aware that it is all about where our team is come May.”
Sophomore and No. 28 Daria Panova leads the Ducks after an impressive fall season that included a victory over No. 6 Sara Walker of UCLA to advance to the quarterfinals of the Omni Hotels National Indoor Championships.
“To have a player in the final eight of a national tournament is fantastic,” Schyllander said.
Panova finished the fall season with a record of 8-4. Her last match was a loss to No. 1 Agata Cioroch of Georgia at the Indoors.
“For Daria to move up into the top 30 individually shows that her hard work is paying off and that her game is moving in the right direction,” Schyllander said. “But she is not satisfied and has ambitious goals, so look for her to keep improving.”
Panova, ranked fifth in the ITA Northwest Regional Rankings, will be joined by senior Monika Gieczys, juniors Davina Mendiburu and Courtney Nagle, sophomore Ester Bak and freshmen Anna Leksinska, Jamie Marshall and Julie Merle. Nagle finished the fall season 2-1, including an impressive victory over No. 80 Claire Carter of Washington and a tough loss to No. 30 Erin Burdette of Stanford.
Nagle’s fall-season play earned her a No. 21 regional ranking and Mendiburu comes in at No. 26. The doubles team of Panova/Mendiburu is ninth and Nagle/Merle is No. 13.
The three freshmen are appearing in their first Pac-10 action after a limited fall season where poor weather canceled tournament opportunities.
“We haven’t seen them enough in competitive situations,” Schyllander said. “They’ve played each other a lot, so they’re excited to play somebody else finally.”
The Ducks begin the dual match season next week with road games against Colorado and Illinois.