Ducks Set to Close Regular Season Against Rival Huskies

Saturday, April 22

Eugene, OR

2:00 PM

University of Oregon

Washington

Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

Ducks Set to Close Regular Season Against Rival Huskies

04/20/17 | Men's Tennis

Notes - Washington

NO. 22 OREGON WILL CLOSE OUT ITS REGULAR-SEASON SCHEDULE ON SATURDAY (2PM) AT HOME AGAINST PACIFIC NORTHWEST RIVAL WASHINGTON

By: Nate Krueger

MATCH 23 - #22 OREGON (17-5, 3-3) vs. #41 WASHINGTON (12-9, 1-5)
Saturday, April 22 | 2:00 p.m.
Eugene, Ore. | Student Tennis Center
Live Stats
Live Video (if indoors)

WEEKLY INTERVIEWS
Ty Gentry, Freshman

Akihiro Tanaka, Junior

THIS WEEK
The 22nd-ranked Ducks will wrap up their regular season this weekend with a match-up against rival Washington on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Student Tennis Center. Oregon (17-5, 3-3 Pac-12) has enjoyed a tremendous spring season and will aim to finish strong to secure good positioning in both the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments. Oregon enters the weekend coming off a huge upset of No. 15 Stanford last weekend.

HOW TO FOLLOW
Weather will determine if Saturday's match will be featured on live streams.. If the match is played outdoors, there will be no live streams. If the match is played indoors inside the Student Tennis Center, then there will be live streams for all six courts with links available on goducks.com. Links to live results for the match is available on the men's tennis schedule on goducks.com. Live updates will be provided on Twitter via @OregonMTennis.

DUCKS IN THE PAC-12 PICTURE
Oregon enters its final regular-season match currently in fifth place in the Pac-12 standings. The No. 22 Ducks (3-3 Pac-12) have a chance to move up a spot and secure a first-round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament if they can defeat the No. 41 Huskies, and if No. 11 California (4-1) defeats No. 15 Stanford (4-2). No. 8 UCLA (5-0) and No. 6 USC (5-1) will also play this weekend for the Pac-12 regular-season title.

AMOS BECOMES UO ALL-TIME WINS LEADER
With a 7-5, 6-3 win over Arizona's Shoki Kasahara on April 9, senior Jayson Amos became Oregon's all-time singles wins leader with the 91st victory of his career, surpassing Robin Cambier (2009-12). His all-time singles record now sits at 91-34, and his .728 winning percentage is the best of any player on the top-15 wins list. Amos' season singles record sits at 18-11, putting him two wins away from winning at least 20 matches in all four seasons as a Duck. 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. In doubles, Amos is fourth in UO history with 66 career wins.

THOMAS LAURENT - SPECTACULAR SOPHOMORE
Sophomore Thomas Laurent has enjoyed an absolutely stellar season thus far for the Ducks. Laurent is 28-4 (.875) in 2016-17, surpassing Swen Swinnen (27, 2004-05) for the most single-season wins in UO history. In dual matches, the Montpellier, France, native is an astounding 18-2 while playing every match at the No. 1 singles spot. The sophomore added to his incredible season last weekend with a win over the 10th-ranked player in the country. Laurent won his first 18 singles matches of the spring to destroy the previous UO record for consecutive singles matches won of 15. Laurent broke the mark previously set by Simon Stevens (2015) and Robin Cambier (2012) with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Nicolas Moreno de Alboran of UC Santa Barbara on March 5, earning Pac-12 Player of the Week honors in the process, and added two more in UO wins over SDSU and Iowa in the SD Invite to extend his record. His incredible run came to an end with a loss to 38th-ranked Constantin Schmitz of then-No. 30 Tulane in the finals of the SD Invite. For his career, Laurent is 47-10 (.825) overall, 37-8 (.822) in dual matches and an astounding 22-2 (.917) at the top singles spot.

DUCKS SPLIT WITH CAL AND STANFORD AT HOME
The Ducks dropped a thrilling 4-3 decision to No. 12 California last Friday at the Student Tennis Center, but rebounded two days later for a huge 4-3 upset of No. 15 Stanford on Easter Sunday. The win matched the highest-ranked win in program history (#15 Boise State, 2014).

April 14 - #12 California 4, #23 Oregon 3
After losing the doubles point despite a tremendous effort that went down the wire, the Ducks rebounded in singles to quickly surge ahead of the Golden Bears. Freshman Ty Gentry won at No. 6, 6-2, 6-0, and junior Akihiro Tanaka put UO ahead with a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 2. Cormac Clissold made it 3-1, Oregon, with a 6-4, 6-2 victory at No. 5 before Cal won twice to tie the match, 3-3. The deciding point came down to No. 1 singles, where 26th-ranked Thomas Laurent (Oregon) faced off with 15th-ranked Florian Lakat (Cal). With all eyes on them, the match went back-and-forth and down to the wire before Lakat pulled it out, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, to win the match for the Bears.

April 16 - #23 Oregon 4, #15 Stanford 3
The match once again came down to one singles court, this time with sophomore Ethan Young-Smith playing for the Ducks with the match on the line. Despite having not played since March 17, Young-Smith pulled out an emotional 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 win on No. 6 for the Ducks to win the match over No. 15 Stanford and tie the highest-ranked win in program history. Stanford had taken a lead with a win in the doubles point before the Ducks fought back. Cormac Clissold got Oregon on the board with a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 4 before Stanford regained the lead at No. 3. Thomas Laurent continued to shine in singles to tie the match again, defeating 10th-ranked Tom Fawcett, 6-5, 6-0, to break the UO single-season wins record with his 28th victory. Akihiro Tanaka gave Oregon its third point with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over No. 120 Sameer Kumar.

CLISSOLD & LAURENT SHINING IN DOUBLES
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 36-6 (.857) all-time together, putting them in third on the Oregon all-time doubles list. The duo is 21-5 together this season, the fifth-most wins by a pair in a single season, and 16-4 in dual matches, and they set the program single-season record last year with 15 consecutive wins. The pair of Jayson Amos and Armando Soemarno is right behind with an all-time record of 25-6 (.806), good for 11th on the UO all-time list.

IN THE RANKINGS
After slotting in at No. 22 in the latest ITA team rankings, the Ducks have now appeared in the top 25 in nine consecutive weeks and have reached as high as No. 21. Thomas Laurent continues to climb up the national singles rankings, coming at No. 24 in the latest rankings after a win over No. 10 last weekend.

SCHYLLANDER EARNS WIN NO. 200
Nils Schyllander reached a significant milestone with a 4-0 win over Fresno State on February 9. The win marked the 200th of Schyllander's career, with all 200 coming at the University of Oregon. Now in his 11th season at the helm of the Oregon men's tennis program, Schyllander has elevated the Ducks to a new level of success and now sits at 212 career wins. Since the Pac-10 became the Pac-12 in 2011, Schyllander's teams have gone 101-46 (.679), and have won at least 15 matches each season since 2012. 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.