The Oregon women’s tennis team opens its 2006 season with a packed lineup of three home matches this weekend. The Ducks face Portland and Santa Clara today, and Boise State on Sunday.
“Having this many matches in a weekend is a lot, especially with Jamie out,” said women’s head coach Nils Schyllander, referring to senior Jamie Marshall. “But we have to just take care of business and not play matches any longer than we need to.”
Marshall broke her wrist in practice a few weeks ago.
According to Schyllander, playing Boise State will be one of the biggest challenges for the Ducks this weekend.
“In my eyes, Boise State is an NCAA Tournament team and we need to be ready coming right out the gate,” Schyllander said. “They might not be ranked now, but that’s because last year they got a brand new team with four starters coming in from very good programs. It’s going to be a dog fight.”
Oregon enters the weekend coming off of a very successful preseason campaign. Four Ducks went undefeated at the Wailea Classic in Hawaii, where the Ducks won more than 30 matches in the event nearly two weeks ago.
“I think we’re a very confident bunch right now,” Schyllander said. “We felt very good in practice in the fall, and it felt good to get that validated against some other schools and some quality teams.”
The Ducks are rebuilding after losing All-American Daria Panova to graduation in 2005. At the end of her senior season, Panova was ranked No. 51 nationally and held the record for most career victories in program history (93).
“Our depth in singles this year is definitely one of our strengths because you don’t replace someone like Daria Panova with just one player,” Schyllander said. “But our four freshmen are very good. They’ll all get to play right away, and we should be very strong at the number four, five, and six singles positions this year.”
Ceci Olivos of Mexico is one of the freshmen who has contributed to the team’s preseason success. Olivos went undefeated at the Wailea Classic and has formed a formidable doubles partnership with junior standout Dominika Dieskova.
“I like playing doubles because I feel very confident at the net,” Olivos said. “And playing doubles with Dominika is great. I think we connect, and she has helped me to understand the game better.”
The Ducks’ game plan this weekend is to stay consistent and to outlast everyone else.
“We have to take care of the little things, outplay our opponents, and we should be all right,” Schyllander said. “We have to avoid silly mistakes and stay mentally there for the whole match. If we start checking out during the matches then we’re gonna be in trouble.”
The Oregon men’s tennis team kicks off its 2005-06 season this weekend with home matches against Idaho and Santa Clara on Saturday.
“Hopefully we’ll get to exact a little revenge,” said head coach Kevin Kowalik, referring to Oregon’s 2-5 loss to Santa Clara last season. “Our goal is to take care of Idaho first and then come out and play hard against Santa Clara. We just have to fight hard, play hard and get our wins,” he said.
The Ducks have also added four new freshmen to the roster to complement the six returning players from last year.
Fernando Freitas from Brazil, Hugh MacDonald from Australia, Gustavo Loza from Mexico and Mike Myrhed from Sweden are all new to the program. Myrhed also happens to be the second cousin of Nils Schyllander, the head coach of the women’s tennis team.
With the new additions, the Ducks now have eight international players on their current 10-man roster. Junior Eric Pickard and senior Arron Spencer are the only American players on the team. Both are Oregonians.
“Our first choice is obviously to get the American players. We’ve already signed two American players for next year, and we’re still looking at a few more who haven’t made a decision yet,” Kowalik said.
Eugene native Stephen Wiechert, and Geoff Embry from Phoenix, Ariz., are the two players slated to join the Ducks next fall.
“But tennis is an international sport,” Kowalik said. “And in almost every country except the U.S., tennis is number two in popularity. So you get a lot of good players who are internationals.”
Men’s tennis
The men’s tennis program has a history of recruiting and developing international talent. Fifteen internationals have played for the Ducks since the 2000-01 season, including Switzerland native and two-time All-American standout Sven Swinnen.
Kowalik has yet to finalize this weekend’s lineup, but the team’s three seniors – Spencer, Thomas Bieri, and Markus Schiller- are likely to see a lot of playing time.
“Our seniors are going to be our core group of guys and they’ll probably play at the top of the lineup and anchor everything down for us,” Kowalik said. “It’s up to the seniors and the upperclassmen to get the team going.”
Spencer enters the season hoping to improve his 9-11 record from last year.
“Last year, I had an okay year coming off my shoulder surgery,” he said. “But I felt like I could have won a lot of the close matches that I lost. So this year I’d like to see myself winning all those close matches.”
Schiller has reached the second round of the ITF Honolulu Futures Tournament in November, and is 2-1 in preseason play.
“I didn’t really play that much last year because I broke my ankle. But I feel like I’m playing really well this year, so I’m pretty confident going into this weekend. My personal goal this season is to make the NCAA tournament in singles and doubles,” Schiller said.