UO Heads to the Heartland
02/05/15 | Men's Tennis
The No. 44 Oregon men's tennis team will face two challenging opponents this weekend when they take on No. 49 Indiana on Friday at 11 a.m. (PT) and then No. 43 Louisville on Sunday at 7 a.m. (PT). Both matches will be played as true road matches in Bloomington, Ind., and Louisville, Ky., respectively.
LIVE STATS
Indiana
Louisville
SCOUTING THE HOOSIERS
Indiana has started the season 4-1 behind victories over Cornell, Dartmouth, Western Michigan and Northern Illinois. Their only loss was a narrow 4-3 defeat to No. 26 Vanderbilt on the road in Nashville, Tenn.
In doubles, the Hoosiers are led by the No. 9 team in the ITA Ohio Valley Regional Rankings, Sam Monette and Daniel Bednarczyk. The two juniors from Canada have played on court one in every match for Indiana so far this season.
Fittingly, Monette and Bednarczyk are the two best singles players – playing at the No. 1 and 2 singles positions – on the Hoosiers' squad. Monette was an All-Big Ten honoree last season.
Indiana returns the majority of a roster that went 16-17 with a 3-8 record in Big Ten play last season.
SCOUTING THE CARDINALS
Louisville is 2-2 on the season with having faced some stiff early-season competition. The Cardinals dropped matches to No. 41 Drake and No. 3 Virginia, but earned victories over No. 59 Virginia Commonwealth Murray State.
UL is led by the No. 1-ranked singles player in the country, Sebastian Stiefelmeyer. A senior from Vienna, Austria, Stiefelmeyer entered the fall season at No. 110 in the ITA preseason singles rankings, but after winning the ITA All-American Singles Championship and finishing the fall with a 17-2 singles record, the Cardinal skyrocketed up the national rankings.
Other top players ranked in the ITA Ohio Valley Regional Rankings are No. 6 Albert Wagner and No. 11 Alex Gornet. Wagner is the No. 59 singles player in the country, and he plays at the No. 2 position to give the Cardinals a formidable 1-2 punch.
LAST TIME OUT
The Ducks faced Nevada twice last weekend and managed to come away with two convincing victories. UO won 7-0 in the first match and 6-1 in the second.
Oregon was perfect in doubles for both matches, with the No. 1 team of Kevin Farin and Jayson Amos leading the way with two 6-2 victories in both matches.
Daan Maasland, Daniel Sardu, Simon Stevens and Amos logged singles wins in both matches. Nevada – who was ranked No. 66 at the time – only managed to take one point from the Ducks on the weekend. UO has held their opponents to one point or less in all six of their victories this season.
RANKED DUCKS
Going off the ITA Northwest Regional Rankings that came out on January 6, Oregon has two singles players and one doubles teams that received regional recognition. Farin is slated at No. 14 and Maasland enters the dual season at No. 18 in singles. The doubles team of Maasland and Stevens come in at No. 8.
BACK TO THE HEARTLAND
UO made a trip to the Midwest last year when they traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, and took down No. 39 Drake 4-0. The win snapped a 37-match home win streak for the Bulldogs.
OPPORTUNITY TO MOVE UP
With two matches on the road against ranked opponents this weekend, the Ducks will have an opportunity to move up the ITA team rankings with a couple of wins. Oregon has hovered at No. 43 and 44 in four weeks so far this season.
TOUGH STRETCH
The best way to prepare for a challenging Pac-12 slate is to ramp up the competition, and the Ducks have made a point to do so. With their last four matches having come against ranked opponents in the ITA's top 75, Oregon will now prepare for four of their next five matches to also be against ranked foes.
Players Mentioned
