The Oregon women’s tennis team’s four-game winning streak was derailed this weekend by two 7-0 losing efforts on the road against California and Stanford.
“We had some chances in the doubles against California, but they really took it to us in singles,” Oregon coach Paul Reber said.
Dominika Dieskova and Ceci Olivos, the Ducks’ 16th-ranked doubles duo, hung on longest after the Bears downed Oregon’s other two doubles teams by the same 8-3 scoreline.
But Dieskova and Olivos were eventually defeated 8-5 by California’s Zsuzsanna Fodor and Susie Babos, the third-best doubles pair in the country.
In singles, No. 6 California surprised the Ducks by shuffling up its roster so that defending NCAA singles champion, fourth-ranked Babos, started in the number-two roster position instead of her normal number-one spot.
As a result, Fodor – who, prior to Friday’s match, owned a 2-1 career record against Dieskova – was bumped up to number one.
Fodor ended up winning 6-0, 6-1.
“It wasn’t a bad match,” said Dieskova, who was expecting to play Babos instead of her arch-rival. “The level of tennis was good. But from all the matches that I’ve played against her, she played her best on Friday.
“It’s not acceptable that I didn’t win my serve, but she was controlling my service game, and with returns, she took charge of the point. She gave me nothing for free.”
With three nationally ranked players in its lineup, California outclassed the rest of the Ducks in similar fashion.
With Fodor playing number one, Oregon’s Carmen Seremeta ended up having to fight a mismatched battle against the sixth-ranked Babos. Seremeta’s 6-2, 6-3 defeat gave her an 0-4 record for the year in the number-two singles position, and Monica Hoz de Vila subsequently fell 6-0, 6-2 to Marion Ravelojaona.
With the overall match score at 4-0, Reber pulled Ceci Olivos from her number-three match against Nina Henkel because the dual had already been lost, and Olivos was clearly hurting.
The sophomore from Mexico has had shoulder problems all season, and her arm began to bother her against Henkel.
“It was hurting pretty bad when I was playing,” Olivos said. “(Henkel) has a pretty big game and generates a lot of power, and I’d finished the first set and was playing the second, and it was pointless to keep playing.”
On Saturday against fourth-ranked Stanford, Olivos popped some Ibuprofen, played through the pain, and came close to providing the Ducks’ only win.
Playing 29th-ranked Whitney Deason, Olivos initially struggled to find momentum, and lost the first set 6-1.
“After that, I started mixing it up and slicing my shots, and it worked and she was getting upset,” Olivos said.
But Olivos didn’t quite manage to win the second set that would have tied the match and forced a third set – she lost 7-6 (7-4) in the tiebreaker.
Still, Reber was satisfied with her performance in the second half of the match.
“Ceci did a great job with the second set, and I’m kinda hoping she realizes that’s the way she needs to play,” Reber said.
The Ducks are now 8-4 overall, but 0-2 in the Pacific-10 Conference. They next take on Nevada-Reno and Eastern Washington this Friday at the Student Tennis Center.
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