On Saturday afternoon, the Ducks’ season came to an end as they lost to No. 12 Texas A&M 4-0 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The loss ends a 2017 season that saw the Ducks (19-7) advance to the regional final for the second year in a row. Similar to the 2016 season, that is as far as the Ducks would go, falling just short of a trip to Georgia for the Sweet 16.
After defeating Memphis on Friday, the Ducks were stacked up against Texas A&M, the host of the regional.
The Ducks put themselves in an early hole that they could not dig themselves out of after losing the doubles point to begin the match. Thomas Laurent and Cormac Clissold started things off with a 6-4 win.
Shortly after, Simon Stevens and Ty Gentry, were edged out 6-4, with the tiebreaker on the shoulders of Jayson Amos and Armando Soemarno. The Ducks No. 1 pair lost 7-6 (7-2) against the No. 9 doubles pair in the country, AJ Catanzariti and Arthur Rinderknech.
The Ducks fared even worse in singles. Akihiro Tanaka fell to Catanzariti 6-3, 6-2, before Simon Stevens lost in straight sets to No. 48-ranked Jordi Arconada, 6-2, 6-4.
No. 27 Thomas Laurent – whose season will continue in the NCAA Singles Championships on May 24 – could not bail out the Ducks, losing in straight sets to No. 6-ranked Arthur Rinderknech, 6-4, 6-2 to clinch the match for the Aggies and send the Ducks home.
With all players but Amos returning next season, the No. 24 Ducks will hope to take the next step in the program’s recent progression during the 2018 season.
Follow Cole Kundich on Twitter @ckundich