What a comeback. What a run.
Karin Young and Sophie Luescher are already making an incredible impact for No. 36 Oregon (13-5, 4-3 Pac-12). The two freshmen closed out an improbable comeback over the No. 46 Utes (13-8, 2-5 Pac-12) on Friday afternoon to extend the Ducks’ win streak to five games.
With 5 points finalized and Oregon trailing 2-3, both Luescher (No. 1 spot) and Young (No. 4 spot) needed to win their sets to keep the hot streak alive.
The run in peril was one that saw the Ducks pick up an upset win over No. 25 Arizona State, sweep the Washington weekend (5-2 over Washington State and 4-0 over No. 20 Washington) and escape Provo with a 4-3 win over BYU on March 31. It appeared to be the perfect momentum segue into a matchup with a Utah squad that struggled in conference play in 2022.
But this would be no easy win.
After trading 6-4 wins with Utah’s Anastasia Goncharova, Young found herself in a tie-breaking winner-takes-all third set with the outcome of the match hanging in the balance. The freshman from Minnesota has been surprisingly impressive for the Ducks this season, her 6-4 third set was nothing short of shocking as it capped off Oregon’s resurgence.
Oregon dropped the doubles point 2-1 to open the scoring and put Utah ahead 1-0. But the Ducks have played from behind before, and they’ve had some successes in doing so. On Thursday, Oregon lost the doubles point to BYU and rallied to win the match. The early deficit wasn’t overly alarming.
Getting down 2-0 was.
After Lindsay Hung bested Ares Teixido Garcia 2-0, Oregon needed victories in four of the remaining five sets.
In the blink of an eye, Uxia Martinez Moral and Myah Petchey finished off sweeps of their Ute opponents to even the score at 2.
Martinez Moral had the easiest path to victory of any Duck as she made short work of Madison Tattini 6-2 and 6-3 in a quick sweep. Her win got Oregon on the board and lit the spark for an explosive rally.
Petchey, playing in the No. 2 spot, has been a steady winner for Oregon in 2022. Friday was no expectation as she bested Emily Dush 6-4 and 6-2 to put the Ducks right back in the hunt for their fifth straight win.
Luescher’s 2-0 sweep over No. 124 Linda Huang erased the Allison Mulville loss in the No. 6 spot to even the score at three and turned all eyes to Young.
And Young turned the Utes away.
Even on short rest, this Duck team showed they are never to be counted out and will be heavy favorites as they travel to Boulder on Sunday for a 9 a.m. PT matchup with the struggling Colorado Buffaloes (6-10, 0-6 Pac-12).
