University of Oregon
No. 19 California
Ducks Fall 4-1 at No. 19 California
04/10/16 | Men's Tennis
BERKELEY, Calif. – The 36th-ranked Oregon men's tennis team fell 4-1 at No. 19 California Sunday afternoon at the Hellman Tennis Complex. The Ducks will close out the regular season next Saturday at Washington at 3 p.m.
HOW IT HAPPENED: The match was originally scheduled for Saturday, but heavy rain in the Bay area suspended the match after just a couple points being played. Due to more rain being anticipated today, play began with singles.
The Bears (13-5, 4-2 Pac-12) were able to grab an early 3-0 lead with wins at the top three spots. The Ducks (16-6, 2-4 Pac-12) then cut the deficit to two points when Jayson Amos collected his third win over a ranked opponent this season. After trailing 3-1 early on in the first set to No. 76 Oskar Wilkberg, Amos came back to tie it up at 5-5 and then again at 6-6. In the tiebreak, the junior was down 3-2 when he rallied and won five straight points to take the breaker 7-3. He then jumped out to a 4-2 advantage in the second set and never relinquished the lead, winning 6-4.
UO needed to collect wins at the final two spots to force the match to play out the doubles. Cormac Clissold and Ethan Young-Smith were both locked in battles at the Nos. 5 and 6 spots. Young-Smith fell in the tiebreak in the first set to Mads Engsted and then was tied at 4-all in the second when the Cal player won back-to-back games to claim the set 6-4 and clinch the win for the Golden Bears.
At No. 5, Clissold took down J.T. Nishimura 6-2 in the first set before falling 6-3 in the second. Clissold was down 3-0 early on in the third before he came back to tie it up at 3-3. Nishimura held a slight 5-4 advantage when the match was abandoned.
AMOS TIES RECORD MARK: Jayson Amos collected his 24th singles win of the season today, matching his own record for the second-best season in program history. As a freshman in 2014, the Mission Viejo, Calif.-product put together a 24-5 mark, which tied him with Robin Cambier and Dougal Williams for the second-most wins in a single season. Sven Swinnen set the all-time wins in a lone season in 2005 when he went 27-9. During the course of his three seasons at Oregon, Amos now owns two second-best seasons as well as the fifth.
UP NEXT: The Ducks will close out the regular season on the road when they travel to Washington next Saturday for a 3 p.m. contest. The match will be shown live on the Pac-12 Network.
