After kicking off the first weekend of Pac-12 play 0-2, Oregon men’s tennis got back in the groove, this time with a 5-2 victory over No. 50 Old Dominion. The team is now 11-5 on the season. 

In doubles play, Oregon got off on the wrong foot when Jesper Klov-Nilsson and Riki Oshima were defeated by Younes Lalami and Francios Musitelli, 6-3. But the Ducks were able to come back, first when Charles Roberts and Brandon Lam took down Jannik Giesse and Tomislav Podvinski, 6-3. To close out doubles, No. 10 Joshua Charlton and Ty Gentry won a contested match against No. 35 Luca Maldoner and Nicola Vidal, 7-5.

“It spreads confidence throughout the team when we play doubles because we know 90% of the time [Gentry and Charlton] are going to win. And we just need to find one more,” head coach Nils Schyllander said. 

In singles play, Oregon started from behind when Gentry lost to Podvinski in two sets, 6-1, 6-4. It was not Gentry’s finest match and it briefly allowed the Monarchs to tie the team match, 1-1.

But freshman Klov-Nilsson was able to extend Oregon’s lead once again when he downed Giesse in two sets, 7-5, 6-1. Klov-Nilsson won his match on Friday against New Mexico as well, and had a strong weekend overall. 

Newly ranked No. 94 Emmanuel Coste was also able to get in on the win column. He defeated Maldoner in two solid sets, 6-3, 6-4.

Oshima won the clinching match to give Oregon the team victory. After blowing an opportunity to seal a win against UCLA last week, Oshima did not let another opportunity slip through his grasp. He defeated Lalami in three sets, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

“I was the one who lost that match [UCLA] and it was tragic for me that day mentally, I couldn’t recover. We had two wins, I think we are on a good track to win against the next couple of teams,” Oshima said. 

Even though Oregon had already won the match, play continued with two tight matches. Freshman Luke Vandecasteele won his second singles match of the weekend, defeating Vidal in three sets. He lost the opening set, 6-1, but fought back in the second set winning, 6-2. He then prevailed 7-5 in tiebreakers. 

No. 33 Charlton was not so lucky. After winning a tough 7-5 result to kick off his match against Musitelli, he lost 11-9 in an intense tiebreaker series. In the abbreviated third set Charlton fell 10-8 in a heartbreaker. Visibly upset, he threw his racket across the student tennis center before shaking hands with Musitelli. 

Oregon will take a much-needed break before resuming play against UNLV on March 22 in Eugene.