After the Oregon men’s tennis team’s Senior Day victory over Arizona, attention immediately switched toward its last three Pac-12 matches. Essentially controlling their own destiny, the Ducks needed a win Saturday over Utah in order to achieve their postseason goals.
“[The players] know what they need to do,” head coach Nils Schyllander said. “We’ll get it done.”
The No. 41 Ducks indeed got it done today, getting a huge 4-3 win over No. 35 Utah thanks to a clutch win by No. 24 singles player Thomas Laurent.
With the match tied at three, Laurent downed No. 115 singles player Dan Little 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-1 for win number 23 on the season.
This marks the second straight away match the Ducks won in a do-or-die situation. Freshman Riki Oshima clinched the match over Washington 4-3 on March 31.
The Ducks led early after taking the best of three doubles point. The No. 37 doubles duo of Laurent and Cormac Clissold won 7-6(3) and Simon Stevens and Ty Gentry won 6-3.
In singles play, Gentry put the Ducks up 2-0 with a 6-3, 7-6(3) win before Clissold and Stevens dropped their matches.
Oshima then won his match 6-3, 7-6(6) at the six position and Akihiro Tanaka dropped his match 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(1).
This set the stage for Laurent to be the hero, and he did it in dominant fashion. In the best-of-three match, Laurent won the overall match deciding set 6-1 before being mobbed by his teammates and dampening Utah’s Senior Day.

Ice in his veins. 💪 #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/pNkwpg0slm

— Oregon Men's Tennis (@OregonMTennis) April 14, 2018

The Ducks will once again play on the road, traveling to the Bay Area to take on Stanford and Cal to close out Pac-12 play next weekend.
Follow Maverick Pallack on Twitter @mavpallack