Ducks Ready for Three Home Matches in Three Days

Match #6
Oregon (4-1) vs. Fresno State (1-2)
Thursday, Feb. 9 | 5:00 p.m.
Student Tennis Center | Eugene, Ore.
Live Scoring
Live Streams

Match #7
Oregon (4-1) vs. Nebraska (0-3)
Friday, Feb. 10 | 5:00 p.m.
Student Tennis Center | Eugene, Ore.
Live Scoring
Live Streams

Match #8
Oregon (4-1) vs. Iowa (5-2)
Saturday, Feb. 11 | 2:00 p.m.
Student Tennis Center | Eugene, Ore.
Live Scoring
Live Streams

WEEKLY INTERVIEWS

Head Coach Nils Schyllander

Ethan Young-Smith, Sophomore

WEEKLY NOTES

This Week
The Ducks stay home for a grueling week of three matches in three days, as they welcome Fresno State (Thursday, 5 p.m.), Nebraska (Friday, 5 p.m.) and Iowa (Saturday, 2 p.m.) to the Student Tennis Center. Oregon is 4-1 to start the spring with a couple of tough wins already under their belt, and the Ducks will look to continue that hot start as they continue non-conference play throughout February.

What to Watch For
Live scoring for all three matches will be available on GoDucks.com, as well as links to live streams for all six courts at the Student Tennis Center. Doubles will be played first, followed shortly by singles play on all six courts.

Ducks Dominate Cal Poly at Home
The Ducks came away with as clean a win possible last Saturday against Cal Poly at the Student Tennis Center, sweeping the Mustangs, 7-0, without allowing them to claim a single set win. The duos of Armando Soemarno/Jayson Amos and Cormac Clissold/Thomas Laurent claimed the doubles point for Oregon, and then the Ducks went to work in singles. Ethan Young-Smith got the ball rolling with a 6-1, 6-2 win on No. 6, and Akihiro Tanaka (No. 4, 6-4, 6-2), Laurent (No. 1, 6-4, 6-3), Clissold (No. 5, 6-3, 7-5), Amos (No. 3, 6-1, 7-6) and Simon Stevens (No. 2, 7-6, 6-3) followed suit to bring the Ducks to 4-1 on the spring with the sweep.

Laurent Thriving at No. 1 Spot
Standout sophomore Thomas Laurent has been stellar when playing at the No. 1 singles spot, not only this year but throughout his Oregon career. Laurent is 14-2 overall in singles this year, including an unscathed 4-0 mark on the top court. For his career, Laurent is 8-0 at No. 1, giving the Ducks a reliable option against the fiercest competition. Laurent is 33-8 (.805) in his career in singles and has won his last eight matches.

Clissold & Laurent Shining in Doubles
Despite dropping a doubles match against Rice two weeks ago at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, the duo of Thomas Laurent and Cormac Clissold has been as steady as they come since the two teamed up for the first time in 2016. The pair is now 24-3 (.889) all-time together, putting them in a tie for 10th on the Oregon all-time doubles list. The duo set the program single-season record last year with 15 consecutive wins.

In the Rankings
In the latest ITA rankings released on Feb. 8, Thomas Laurent slots in at No. 38 in the singles rankings while Simon Stevens debuts at No. 124. In doubles, Laurent and Cormac Clissold make their first appearance in the rankings at No.33, while Jayson Amos and Simon Stevens slot at No. 47. Amos and Armando Soemarno also make the rankings at No. 51 after being tabbed at the No. 9-ranked pair in the preseason rankings.

Building Blocks of Success
Now in his 11th season at the helm of the Oregon men's tennis program, Nils Schyllander has elevated the Ducks to a new level of success. Since the Pac-10 became the Pac-12 in 2011, Schyllander's teams have gone 88-44 (.666), and have won at least 15 matches each season since 2012. Schyllander currently sits only one win shy of 200 for his career as a head coach. The Ducks took fifth in the Pac-12 last year for the second straight year, and earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons. Oregon now looks to build on last year's first-ever NCAA Tournament win as it returns six of its seven top contributors from last season's team.

Amos in Final Year with Records in Sight
In his final season with the Ducks, senior Jayson Amos has enjoyed a rapid rise in the Oregon record book. Amos is third on the Oregon all-time list with 82 career singles wins, only eight behind former teammate Robin Cambier's school record of 90. Amos is also ninth in UO history on the doubles career wins list with 58. The native of Mission Viejo, Calif., is also one of only two players in UO history to have three straight seasons of at least 22 singles wins, joining Cambier, and fell just one singles win short of the all-time single-season record with a 28-6 mark last year.

Breaking Down the Roster
This year's squad features a mix of seasoned veterans and talented newcomers. Jayson Amos returns for his senior season to lead the squad, along with juniors Cormac Clissold and Simon Stevens. Clissold and Stevens each earned double-digit singles wins for the Ducks last year, and Stevens tied the program record for consecutive singles wins (15) as a freshman in 2015 while Clissold and sophomore Thomas Laurent set the program record with 15 straight doubles wins last year.

Laurent, a sophomore, is a big piece for the Ducks in both singles and doubles. The Ducks also return two more experienced sophomores in Ethan Young-Smith and Armando Soemarno. Young-Smith went 21-13 in singles as a freshman in 2016, and Soemarno teamed up with Amos to go 18-3 overall and get as high as No. 9 in the ITA doubles rankings.

Three newcomers join the Oregon squad in 2016-17: freshmen Ty Gentry and Fabian Soemarno and junior transfer Akihiro Tanaka. Gentry is in his first collegiate dual match season as a five-star recruit out of Tumwater High School in Washington, and Soemarno joins his brother, Fabian, with hopes of cracking the Oregon lineup as a freshman. Tanaka comes to Oregon out of Asia University in Tokyo, Japan, as a highly-regarded transfer.