University of Oregon
Memphis
In Repeat Trip To Regionals, Ducks Eye Next Goal In Progression
05/11/17 | Men's Tennis, @GoDucksMoseley
The Oregon men are making their first-ever repeat NCAA appearance, and now hope to win two regional matches for the first time.
When Jayson Amos decided to sign with the Oregon men's tennis program, the five-star recruit out of Mission Viejo, Calif., was joining a team that, at that point in 2013, had made just three all-time postseason appearances.
This month, Amos' career as a Duck will end. He'll leave Eugene as the program's all-time leader in singles victories, a record that stands at 93 entering No. 24 Oregon's NCAA Regional opening round matchup with Memphis on Friday in College Station, Texas. And he'll have helped the Ducks double their total postseason appearances to six, including back-to-back trips for the first time ever, in 2016 and 2017.
Compiled as a list, that sounds like a monumental leap in achievement by the UO men's tennis program under coach Nils Schyllander. But the Ducks have developed into a regular postseason participant not through a monumental leap, but through carefully orchestrated, incremental steps laid out by Schyllander and his longtime assistant, Jonas Piibor.
When Schyllander recruited Amos, he didn't do so with a pitch of passing in the Pac-12 hierarchy Stanford, which has won 17 NCAA team titles. But that's what the Ducks did this spring, beating Stanford in the regular season and taking a No. 4 seed into the Pac-12 tournament, where the fifth-seeded Cardinal got revenge.
And Schyllander didn't sell Amos on the idea of Oregon being an annual NCAA Regional participant. But that's what the Ducks have become, by building a culture of grit and work ethic, maximizing the talent on the roster, translating that into results on the court, using those results to attract talented recruits, and repeating that cycle year after year.
"We don't set unrealistic expectations, and I think that's something that makes it easier to work for, day to day," Amos said. "Our goals are incremental, to where they're attainable, instead of aiming too high. They've been realistic, but they've been challenging – which is exactly how goal-setting should be. I think we've done a pretty good job of attaining most of our goals."
A year ago, the UO men won an NCAA Regional match for the first time, beating Tulsa in the first round. On Friday morning, the Ducks will face Memphis, making back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances for the first time. And Oregon heads to College Station confident that, if the Ducks play to their capabilities, they'll still be playing after this weekend.
"It's going to be tough," Schyllander said. "Memphis, they're a very good team. And Texas A&M is as well, obviously. But when we're sitting here talking about, that we feel like we have a shot at these schools, we've come a long way."
Schyllander remembers how awestruck his 2014 team was when it made the NCAA Regional round. The 2015 squad might have been the first to make a repeat trip, but injuries derailed that attempt. A year later, Amos and two teammates became the first ever UO men's tennis players to make a return trip to NCAA Regionals. This week, five of six players from the 2016 win over Tulsa are headed back to Regionals.
"Now, it's just a habit, and you know what to do," Schyllander said. "Which is what you want – once you start that process, for it to become a habit. You want it to be 'in the walls,' in the locker room. Once you've gone through it, it becomes an expectation within the group. That's a huge part of being successful."
Thanks to steps like the 2014 NCAA appearance, Schyllander and Piibor were able to recruit talent like Thomas Laurent. The sophomore is on pace to surpass Amos' UO career record for wins, after setting a new school single-season record with 29 so far this spring. After the NCAA team championships, Laurent was invited to participate in the NCAA single tournament later this month.
Raising the program's profile has also helped the coaching staff attract more challenging nonconference opponents. The Ducks faced the likes of Minnesota, Drake and UC Santa Barbara earlier this spring – helpful measures of Oregon's readiness for Pac-12 and postseason play against other teams with NCAA aspirations.
That seasoning catapulted the Ducks into Pac-12 play, where they posted the best finish in school history, fourth. The final week of the regular season featured the biggest win in UO history, over No. 15 Stanford, followed by a rivalry win over Washington.
The good mojo was interrupted at the Pac-12 Tournament, where the Cardinal got revenge and ousted Oregon. That didn't sit well with the Ducks.
"I think the guys are really hungry," Piibor said. "We had high hopes for the Pac-12 Tournament; we lost, and we've been practicing really, really hard to get ready for a tough Memphis team. It got their attention."
The Ducks will try to funnel those frustrations into a win over Memphis, which would be just the second NCAA Regional win in school history. If all goes well, they'll then have a chance to win twice in the same NCAA Tournament for the first time ever, checking off another box on the program's incremental rise in the last decade.
"It's not really a surprise to me we're in a position where we expect to do well on a national stage," Amos said. "It's exciting for it to actually happen – for expectations to become reality. That's something everyone should take a lot of pride in, building that. Now that we're there it can continue, with future teams keeping the momentum rolling."
Players Mentioned
