No. 45 Oregon men’s tennis pummeled No. 65 Santa Clara on Sunday at the Student Tennis Center 6-1.
The Ducks turned their two-stroke losing streak around with two important victories on the weekend. The win is Oregon’s second straight following its 7-0 rout of No. 66 Nebraska to begin its home stand on Friday. Oregon’s record is 7-0 at home this season.
“We’ve been practicing great for the past week and a half,” head coach Nils Schyllander said. “It really translated into playing well as a team over the weekend.”
Oregon commanded the doubles point, with Simon Stevens and Daniel Sardu taking down Michael Standifer and Sebastian Mathieu 6-0 on court three. Daan Maasland and Joey Swaysland handled Sam Bertram and Ilya Osintev 6-1 on court two, while the number one doubles match between Kevin Farin/Jayson Amos and Mikheil Khmiadashvili/Ashot Kharcharyan went unfinished with the Ducks ahead 5-1.
“Last year when we played Santa Clara we lost the doubles point, and we know they have really good 1-3 players, so we knew that if we won the doubles point today we would have a great chance to win the match,” Farin said. “That made us all relax and more free to play, concentrate on our own tennis and not think about the score anymore.”
Farin turned in a gutty performance versus Osintev on court one, consistently burying his shots in the far corners. Farin’s huge 6-4, 6-2 win clinched the match with for Oregon with Maasland controlling court one and freshmen Stevens and Cormac Clissold dominating on courts five and six.
Maasland won both his matches at the one position this weekend, the first action he’s seen on court one since January 10 versus Eastern Washington. His 6-2, 6-1 defeat of Kharcharyan improves his overall singles record to 13-5 in 2015.
Stevens has been on an absolute tear. His 6-2, 6-2 thrashing of Mathieu on court five is his sixth straight win in singles. He is 9-0 in dual play this season.
Clissold has now won four of his last five singles matches and lost only once in singles this spring. Clissold finished first on Sunday, dominating Max Heerinckx on court six.
Jayson Amos suffered the Ducks’ only loss to Bertram after they’d already sealed the match victory, falling 6-4, 6-4 to Sam Bertram on court four.
Daniel Sardu found himself in a dog fight with Khmiadashvili, having lost the first set 6-7 (10-8) but won the second 6-2. The other Ducks and Broncos rallied them on from the sidelines for a wild, back-and-forth tiebreaker that saw Sardu emerge victorious 11-9.
The Ducks will look to ride their momentum into Malibu next weekend for a Saturday, February 28 match against Pepperdine. They’ll stop in Santa Barbara for a Monday afternoon showdown with UCSB on Monday but won’t play at the Student Tennis Center again until March 23.
Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @kennyjacoby