After a four-match home stand, the Oregon women’s tennis team took flight eastbound to Boise, Idaho. It was a weekend full of firsts — Oregon (6-3) claimed its first road victory of the season on Friday when the Ducks defeated Boise State University (2-3), 6-1. 

Freshman Tilde Jagare claimed her first collegiate dual wins at doubles and singles against the Broncos and her second singles win on Saturday, when the Ducks handed Minnesota University (6-1) its first loss of 2024, securing a dominant 5-2 win. 

With Nina Geissler still out of the Ducks lineup due to injury, Oregon once again reshuffled its pairings in pursuit of putting the team ahead against its opponent and taking the doubles point.

After being apart for four weeks, Sophie Luescher and Uxia Martinez Moral rejoined forces at the No. 1 position. Their brief hiatus and lost chemistry cost them the match; the top tandem fell 1-6 to Nicole Discenza and Lorelyz Marruffo. 

On Court 3, Candela Aparisi and Karin Young overcame Boise State’s Joana Baptista and Ana Conde Vendrell 6-2. With doubles tied 1-1, Jo-Yee Chan and Jagare were left on Court 2, fighting their way back from a 3-5 deficit. The Duck duo, playing together for the first time this season, managed to close out the match in a tiebreak and clinch the doubles point, 7-6 (7-2). 

Martinez Moral advanced her singles winning streak to three matches and boosted the Ducks to a 2-0 lead with her 6-0, 6-4 win over Baptista. Meanwhile, the senior’s fellow Spanish teammate suffered a singles run setback at the No. 5 spot, losing 3-6, 5-7. 

Young had a scoreline similar to Aparisi’s on Court 4; instead, it was in her favor. The junior outlasted Shauna Heffernan 6-2, 7-5. Unlike last weekend against the University of Denver, when Jagare could not clinch the match for Oregon, the 2021 Swedish national junior champion found her way on top. Jagare dealt Boise’s Ana Conde Vendrell a 6-2, 6-2 win. 

With the contest already complete for Oregon, Luescher and Chan completed two comeback victories. Both Ducks dropped their first set by a score of 6-4 before bouncing back to win in three sets. 

The wins kept coming for the Ducks as the team rolled into its second weekend match against Minnesota. On Saturday morning, the Ducks handed the Golden Gophers their first loss of the spring season. 

The future Big Ten foe matchup started with a doubles point win for Oregon. Aparisi and Young collected their fifth spring win together with a 6-1 triumph over Sofia Pizzoni and Zeyneb Sarioglan on Court 3. 

Luescher and Martinez Moral were able to readjust their doubles play from the previous day, winning an efficient 6-2 match against Mia Liepert and Sofia Pinto. On Court 2, Chan and Jagare were down 3-5, when the match went unfinished, signaling the start of the singles round. 

The relatively new face of Jagare kept up her first-year momentum and eased past her opponent with a 6-4, 6-2 victory on Court 6, while fellow freshman Aparisi followed up with a 7-6 (6), 6-4 win at the No. 5 position. 

It was deja vu from Friday for the top two Ducks. Chan and Luescher staged impressive three-set triumphs after losing the first set. Chan, who was playing her third-straight match at the second position in the lineup, clinched the decisive fourth point by defeating Aiva Schmitz 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. The sophomore improved her dual record to 6-3.

The lone Duck losses of the match came from No. 4 Young and No. 3 Martinez Moral. The Oregon veterans suffered third-set losses, 3-6 6-1 6-2, and 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-2, respectively. Four of the six singles matches on the day went to three sets. 

The weekend wins improved Oregon’s all-time records to 8-2 over Boise State and 2-4 against the Golden Gophers. 
The Ducks will travel to Iowa City to face the University of Iowa on Friday at 3 p.m. and Iowa State University on Sunday at 8 a.m. Both contests will be played at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex.