One week after an undefeated weekend in Eugene, the Oregon women’s tennis team travelled to Illinois, defeating Illinois-Chicago 5-2 in Evanston on Friday and losing to the University of Illinois 4-3 in Champaign on Sunday.
Illinois-Chicago
Despite going down 2-0 by dropping the doubles point and a singles match, the Ducks wound up victorious against the Flames on Friday, taking five straight points to close out the 5-2 victory.
“Today gave us the opportunity to come back after losing a close doubles point to a competitive UIC team,” head coach Courtney Nagle told GoDucks. “I was very pleased with the way we set the tone at the start of singles for how we were going to compete throughout the rest of the match. Looking forward to a great battle on Sunday.”
Although Oregon possessed the advantage in doubles play, thanks to Shweta Sangwan and Rifanty Kahfiani’s 6-1 win over Karyna Bihel and Lucie Prochazkova, the Flames took the other two matches in 7-5 tiebreakers to secure the point.
After Rachel Comber defeated Oregon’s Taryn Fujimori 6-0, 6-1, Oregon caught fire.
Paiton Wagner defeated Georgie Sanders 6-2, 6-1 to get Oregon on the board. Kahfiani then tied the match at two with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Prochazkova.
Oregon took a lead it would not relinquish when No. 72 Daniela Nasser defeated Bihel 6-1, 6-4.
Freshman Allison Mulville then clinched the match with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Georgia Gulin.
No. 55-ranked Shweta Sangwan was last to finish, defeating Lejia Colic 6-4, 6-1 and bringing the score to its final.
Illinois
A shorthanded Oregon team fell to Illinois on Sunday 4-3 with both Shweta Sangwan and Julia Eshet out of action for singles play.
Although Sangwan won her doubles match with Kahfiani 7-6, she was unable to play in the singles portion. With Eshet not traveling with the team, the Ducks were left with just five players, forcing head coach Courtney Nagle to move everyone up one position and forfeit spot six.
Oregon did however take an early lead. Sangwan and Kahfiani’s win, paired with Daniela Nasser and Paiton Wagner 7-5 win over Emilee Duong and Jaclyn Switkes, gave Oregon a 1-0 lead.
Of course, with the forfeit in the sixth position, the match was immediately tied back up.
The Fighting Illini took a 2-1 lead when Sasha Belaya shut out Taryn Fujimori 6-0, 6-0.
The other four matches, were not as one-sided, with all going to three sets.
Switkes put Illinois one win away from clinching the dual, defeating Kahfiani 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Mia Rabinowitz clinched the match, defeating Allison Mulville with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.
With the dual being played out, Nasser, 7-6, 6-1, 5-4 and Wagner, 6-3, 6-7, 6-5 won their matches to end the match 4-3.
Follow Maverick Pallack on Twitter @mavpallack
