They played without Claudia Hirt last week, but at least they managed to travel to San Diego with enough players to fill a full roster.
This weekend, the short-handed Oregon women’s tennis team’s injury woes continue as they travel to take on the Arizona schools with only five women on the roster.
The 36th-ranked Ducks (12-8 overall, 2-5 Pacific-10 Conference) play No. 44 Arizona on Friday and then face the Sun Devils on Saturday.
Hirt, a sophomore who plays No. 2 doubles and No. 6 singles for the Ducks, sprained her left ankle in practice last Wednesday and stayed in Eugene while the Ducks traveled to San Diego with walk-on Tina Snodgrass playing in Hirt’s place.
Initially, the Ducks were hoping to have Hirt back in action for this weekend’s matches. But trainers determined earlier this week that Hirt’s ankle injury will probably keep her out of action for a while longer.
“The ballpark figure is one to six weeks,” Oregon women’s coach Paul Reber said. “It’s not an uncommon ankle injury, but it’s not super common. (Hirt) strained one of the ligaments that holds two bones together, and the trainers don’t know exactly how long it’ll be until she can set weight on it.”
The Ducks looked into the idea of taking Snodgrass, their only substitute, to Arizona with them, but soon ruled out that option.
“We’re not playing Tina this weekend because things didn’t work out flight-wise,” Reber said.
This means that Oregon will have to forfeit No. 3 doubles and the No. 6 singles match.
But Reber is trying to remain optimistic about the situation.
“If you ask me, the pressure’s on Arizona and Arizona State,” he said. “We’re playing man-down. Where’s the pressure? We’re going down there with five kids, so go ahead, try and beat us.”
Men’s tennis
The Oregon men (9-11 overall, 0-5 Pac-10) resume the hunt for their first Pac-10 win of the season when they host Arizona on Friday and Arizona State on Sunday.
The Ducks started the season winning seven out of their first nine matches, but began to falter when they found themselves up against ranked teams midway through the season.
Their last win against a ranked team dates back to Feb. 24, when Oregon defeated No. 48 San Diego State 4-3 at home.
“The matches that we played at the beginning of the year are not the same as the matches we’re playing right now,” Oregon freshman Marco Verdasco said. “The Pac-10 schools are a lot better.”
Despite the roller coaster season, men’s coach and Director of Tennis Nils Schyllander maintains that his young team has shown flashes of brilliance, and that this bodes well for the future.
“We’ve had our chances,” Schyllander said. “Like last week (in the Ducks’ 5-2 and 6-1 defeats to Stanford and California), it would have been discouraging if we hadn’t had our chances, but we did.
“And if you keep putting yourself in that situation (to capitalize) at some point, you will.”
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