At last, home is starting to feel like home.
The Oregon tennis teams settled into the five-month-old Student Tennis Center with four matches in three days.
The Duck women swept their competition, giving up only one match in two dominating wins. The men weren’t as fortunate, losing both of their matches.
“I was pleased with our play today and I couldn’t imagine rolling through singles like we did,” women’s head coach Jack Griffin said. “I was happy for them and the results show.”
On Saturday, Oregon disposed of UC-Santa Barbara 7-0, followed by a 6-0 sweep of Boise State on Sunday.
Freshman Davina Mendiburu won her third straight singles match with wins over Boise State’s Jemima Hayward and UC-Santa Barbara’s Shiho Fukishima. Mendiburu is 3-1 since joining the Ducks earlier this month.
Sophomore ace Monika Geiczys won her team-leading seventh singles victory of the season with wins over Boise State’s Helen Lawson and UC-Santa Barbara’s Cindy Amman. Geiczys is now 7-7 on the year.
Freshman Courtney Nagle made her dual match singles debut a successful one by defeating UC-Santa Barbara’s Annie Lippman, 6-0, 6-0.
“We work on fitness and confidence out there,” Griffin said. “We see that we’re the ones getting the free points now, if we’re willing to hang in with the competition and execute more wins.”
Oregon is now 2-2 on the year. Portland visits the Student Tennis Center on Sunday at 5 p.m.
Although the men’s team was dealt two losses by ranked opponents, there were several bright spots.
In a 6-1 loss to top-ranked Stanford on Friday, sophomore Jason Menke recorded a straight-set upset over No. 46 Scott Lipsky. The win was Menke’s first over a ranked opponent in an Oregon uniform.
The doubles team of senior David Becker and freshman Martin Pawlowski nearly pulled off an upset over the Cardinal’s Alex Kim and KJ. Hippensteel but fell two points short, 8-6.
Pawlowski came back to scare Hippensteel in singles, but again came up short in the final set, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
“It was a good effort,” men’s coach Chris Russell said. “Playing at home makes a big difference. If our guys continue to play this hard, we are sure to get better results.”
On Saturday, No. 24 California dealt Oregon a 5-2 setback.
Again, Menke picked up the Ducks’ lone singles win. The Oregon native swept the Golden Bears’ Ben Miles 7-6, 6-2.
“I thought Jason Menke played very focussed from start to finish and the rest of the guys need to learn to focus like that.” Russell said.
Yet doubles play was clearly Oregon’s best showing all weekend. The Ducks captured the doubles point against Cal for the first time since the current doubles rules were instituted.
Becker and Pawlowski continued strong play by upsetting Erik Dmytruk and Scott Kintz, 9-8. Sophomore Oded Teig and freshman Greg Dubourdieu earned a narrow 9-8 win over Miles and Hiro Nakamura to complete the point.
Freshman Buck Mink and Menke kept their doubles match close, but ultimately lost to Cal’s Adrian Barnes and John Paul Fruttero, 9-7.
Mink battled Dmytruk to three sets, but lost 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.
“We played hard,” Russell said. “Across the board, we didn’t play as tough as we did against Stanford. All in all, I think we played competitively. We’re a type of team that will have to earn everything we get.”
Oregon falls to 1-3 overall, 0-2 in the Pac-10. The Ducks host Boise State on Saturday and Northwestern on Sunday at the Student Tennis Center.