If anything dictates how the men’s tennis team will do, it is doubles play.
When the Ducks win the ever-important doubles point — which requires winning at least two of the three doubles matches — then Oregon almost certainly wins the match.
The Ducks have captured the doubles point in all but one of their last 10 matches. The recent doubles success has produced wins in eight of the last 10 matches.
The team of sophomore Thomas Schneiter and freshman Oded Teig has won nine of its last 10 matches and are 13-4 on the season.
Senior Guillermo Carter and freshman Leslie Eisinga have won nine of 11, including an 8-6 upset over then-No.1 Geoff Abrams and Alex Kim of Stanford. At one point during the season, Carter and Eisinga were ranked as high as 47th.
Senior Joaquin Hamdan and junior David Becker have also been key in Oregon’s doubles success.
Streaks
With Oregon’s recent success comes big win streaks by individual players. Schneiter has led the Ducks as of late, winning seven in a row, all in straight sets. No. 89 Ari Strasberg of Washington was his highest-ranked victim.
“We’ve been getting some solid play out of Thomas, as well as several others,” Russell said.
Hamdan has won nine out of his last 10, including the game-winner against Arizona State’s Pim Van Mele.
The team’s freshmen have also been a force for the Ducks. Both Eisinga and Teig are winners in eight of their last 10 matches. Eisinga had a streak of seven wins in a row before a loss to Washington’s Jeremy Berman.
Pac-10 standings
With this weekend’s two Pacific-10 Conference wins the first since 1995 the Ducks vaulted into fifth place in the conference standings with a 2-2 record. Should Oregon finish the season in this position, it would be the highest finish for Oregon since the formation of the Pac-10.
The Ducks are currently tied with Washington for the fifth spot. The Huskies narrowly defeated the Ducks 4-3 on April 2. However, that was a non-conference match and did not count in the conference standings. Both teams play each other again, as well as UCLA and Southern California to finish the season.
Strong finish
After a mid-season slump, sophomore Janice Nyland has come on of late, winning four of her last five matches. The sophomore from Davis, Calif., recorded two major upsets in the last two weeks. She defeated then-No. 88 Zuzana Stunova of Washington on April 2 and Baylor’s No. 100 Vida Mulec on April 9.
Nyland avenged an earlier loss to Washington State’s Ana Marie Moura by defeating the Cougar 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 on March 31. Nyland is 11-14 on the year with two dual-matches remaining.
