Ducks Look to Halt Two-Match Skid
02/18/15 | Men's Tennis
The No. 45 Oregon men's tennis team will look to rebound from two road losses when they face No. 66 Nebraska and No. 65 Santa Clara this weekend at the Student Tennis Center in Eugene, Ore. The Ducks will face Nebraska on Friday, Feb. 20 at 5 p.m. and Santa Clara on Sunday, Feb. 22 at 11 a.m.
Live Streaming and Scoring
Scouting the Cornhuskers and Broncos
Nebraska has yet to play a home match this spring season and they are currently 2-3. Last weekend they went on the road to Dallas, Texas, and dropped a match 5-2 to SMU. Their only two wins are against Eastern Illinois and Denver.
Dusty Boyer has put together a 2-3 mark while playing every match at the No. 1 singles position this spring. The junior from Ham Lake, Minn., was a first-team All-Big Ten selection last season after finishing 25-15 in singles play.
Vasileisos Stavropoulos has been the most successful Cornhusker so far this season. He is a perfect 5-0 playing on exclusively court six. Marc Hermann and Chris Hobgarski are the other two main contributors for Nebraska, they are both 3-2 so far in singles during the dual season.
The Cornhuskers were 12-15 last season and got bounced in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.
Santa Clara is 4-2 with one of their losses coming at the hands of the No.1 team in the country, USC. The Broncos have wins over UC Santa Cruz, Sonoma State, UNC Wilmington and most recently Fresno State this past weekend.
The Broncos' No. 1 player, Ashot Khacharyan, is 4-0 in singles during the dual season. The junior was a West Coast Conference honorable mention selection last season after going 16-7.
Ilya Osintsev on court two (5-0) and Mikheil Khmiadasvili (4-1) at the No. 3 position are Santa Clara's other top singles players.
The Broncos finished last season 17-7 and fell just short of the NCAA Tournament with a 4-2 loss to San Diego in the WCC Conference Championships.
Last Time Out
The Ducks last competed in two road matches at No. 49 Indiana on Feb. 6 and No. 43 Louisville on Feb. 8. Oregon battled hard and had their chances, but they ended up falling 4-2 in both matches.
UO lost the doubles point in both contests and was unable to ever take the lead in either match.
Against Indiana, the Ducks were down 3-0 until the two freshmen – Cormac Clissold and Simon Stevens – recorded singles victories and sparked a mini comeback that drew the Ducks to within one point of the Hoosiers. After a long back-and-forth affair, Daan Maasland fell in a third-set tiebreaker 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (5) on court two to end the match 4-2 in favor of Indiana.
The match against Louisville saw Oregon suffer a similar fate. Stevens made it a 1-1 match when he notched his second singles victory of the weekend with a convincing 6-3, 6-4 performance on court five, but the Cardinals scored the next two points before Jayson Amos earned a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) win at the No. 4 position to keep the Ducks alive.
Louisville secured the victory on court two when Albert Wagner came back to nip Maasland 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-5 to give the Cardinals the 4-2 victory.
Streaking Stevens
Stevens – a freshman from Charleroi, Belgium – is a perfect 7-0 in singles play this spring. He is the only Duck that still has an unblemished record in singles during duals. He has also racked up a 4-1 doubles record in the spring season while playing with Clissold (2-1) and Maasland (2-0).
Home Sweet Home
Oregon is 5-0 while playing in the Student Tennis Center this year. Including this season, the Ducks are 48-12 (.800) in the last five years at home in Eugene, Ore.
No. 4 and 5 Spots
In singles, UO is a combined 13-0 at the No. 4 and 5 positions this spring. The impressive mark in the middle of the lineup is in thanks to Stevens (7-0, No. 4 and 5), Amos (1-0, No. 4), Clissold (2-0, No. 5) and Daniel Sardu (3-0, No. 4).
Crucial Doubles Point
The doubles point has dictated the course of all of UO's matches this year. When winning the doubles point, the Ducks are 6-0, and when they lose, they are 0-3.
Tough Opponents
All three of Oregon's losses have come to opponents ranked in the top 50 of the ITA team rankings; No. 7 North Carolina, No. 43 Louisville and No. 49 Indiana.
Sardu Record Watch
The Sopron, Hungary, native continues to climb the UO record books. He is tied for third in career singles victories (69) and is also tied for fourth in individual career doubles victories with 61.
