The Oregon women’s tennis team will start its season on the road, with three members competing in the women’s ITA All-American Tournament in Los Angeles. Seniors Patricia Skowronski and Julia Metzger and sophomore Sofia Hager will compete in the tournament for the Ducks.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205699251@@
“We haven’t had anybody in the All-American in a few years, so we were pretty happy to have them selected to compete,” assistant coach Maja Kovacek told GoDucks.com. “They prepared really well and have been getting ready for this big tournament for a while. It’s a great opportunity for them to play some ranked teams and players and try to get ahead in those rankings. The high level of competition will help us see where we stack up at the beginning of the year.”
Oregon men’s duo aims for history. Robin Cambier and Jeff Mullen make a good team. Like, best-in-school-history good.
The tennis duo is set to team up again for the first time this year after both scrapped to 1-1 starts in singles play. The two went 29-4 on the same side of the court last year, but will have a target on their backs going into this year. Their first doubles match this year is against University of Texas’ Chris Camillone and David Holiner in the main draw of the ITA All-American Tournament in Tulsa, Okla. The Longhorn duo is seeded fourth.
Cambier, a 5-foot-9 right-handed junior from Belgium, lost in singles to No. 19 (No. 80 nationally) Max Wennakoski from VCU in three sets.
Mullen, a lefty senior, faced another nationally ranked player, No. 58, in LSU’s Chris Simpson. Mullen lost in straight sets.
“I think it was very important for us to go out and play against some of the top competition in the nation this early in the year,” head coach Nils Schyllander told GoDucks.com. “We certainly had our chances. Robin was up 3-0 in the third set and did not grab his opportunity to close out a top-tier player, but he will certainly learn from that. There is another day tomorrow, and I like the way we are hitting the ball this early in the school year.”
But singles isn’t where the two excel, and it will be interesting to see if they’ve lost any ground during their debut.