Ducks Take On Drake And UCSB To Close Out Home Stand

EUGENE, Ore. - The Oregon men's tennis team closes out its five-match home stand against Drake and UC Santa Barbara this Saturday and Monday, respectively. These two matches will be the last tune-up for Oregon before making a final push in the Pac-12, as the Ducks will close out the year with four of their final six conference matches on the road.

MATCH 17: No. 47 OREGON (10-6, 0-2) vs. DRAKE (12-10, 4-0)
Saturday, March 24 | 4:30 p.m.
Eugene, Ore. | Student Tennis Center
Live Stats: GoDucks.com
Live Video: GoDucks.com

MATCH 18: No. 47 OREGON (10-6, 0-2) vs. UC SANTA BARBARA (8-5)
Monday, March 26 | 3 p.m.
Eugene, Ore. | Student Tennis Center
Live Stats: GoDucks.com
Live Video: GoDucks.com

INTERVIEWS
Associate Head Coach Jonas Piibor

Sophomore Ty Gentry

WEEKLY NOTES
LAST TIME OUT
The Ducks snapped out of their recent funk in their last match, ending a four-match losing streak by downing Santa Clara 5-2. UO looked in control right from the get-go as Simon Stevens and Ty Gentry found their groove, ending a three-match losing skid of their own with a 6-2 win at the No. 3 spot. Thomas Laurent and Cormac Clissold clinched the opening point with a win at the No. 2 position.

In singles play, the Ducks quickly secured the victory with back-to-back wins from Gentry and Riki Oshima at the No. 5 and No. 6 spots, respectively. Stevens clinched the match victory for UO by downing SCU's Robert Seby, 6-3, 6-4. Oregon's only two losses in the match came after the win was secured as both Clissold and Akihiro Tanaka fell in third sets.

IN THE RANKINGS
The Ducks held firm in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's latest team rankings, remaining at No. 47.

Individually, Thomas Laurent stayed in the ITA top 20, dropping one spot to No. 14. He is currently 10-3 this spring season, with two of his three losses coming against opponents ranked in the top 20. Laurent has played every match this season at the No. 1 spot, with an overall record of 18-5.

Laurent and Cormac Clissold fell in the doubles rankings to No. 36. After a six-match winning streak, the duo has gone 2-2 in their last four matches. The pair split UO's Pac-12 opening weekend, winning at the No. 2 spot against UCLA before falling to their USC counterparts. When paired together, Clissold and Laurent are 9-4 this spring and 17-6 overall.

THE DYNAMIC DUO
Senior Cormac Clissold and junior Thomas Laurent look to cement their place as one of Oregon's elite doubles team's during UO's next two matches. As a pair, Clissold and Laurent are 56-13 all-time in doubles competition, ranking them second on the UO all-time doubles wins list. They are just one win behind Robin Cambier's and Jeff Mullen's all-time career doubles wins record of 57-11. Their .812 winning percentage is currently the second-highest career doubles winning percentage in UO history. So far this year, the two Ducks are 17-6 overall, and 9-4 this spring. They also won Oregon's first-ever ITA Northwest Regional doubles title this past fall, earning an automatic bid to the Fall National Championships.

THE MONKEY OFF HIS BACK
Senior Simon Stevens got back to his winning ways in UO's last match. The Belgium international snapped his four-match losing streak with a win at the No. 2 spot against Santa Clara. The match-clinching victory was Stevens first singles win in over a month, giving him a 6-6 record this spring. So far in his senior season, Stevens is 15-8 overall in singles play with his latest win giving him sole possession of sixth on the all-time career singles wins list. He passed Oded Teig for sixth and needs just five more wins to tie Daniel Sardu for fifth.

Stevens is also one of the team-leaders in doubles play, partnering with sophomore Ty Gentry for a 17-6 overall record. Stevens and Gentry broke a three-match losing skid of their own with their win against Santa Clara. The win also catapulted Stevens past Daan Maasland for fourth on the individual career doubles wins list. Stevens and Gentry need just three more wins to crack the top 15 career doubles wins list as a team. The duo is 20-9 all-time together.

HOME SWEET HOME
With only four home matches left this season, the Ducks look to fortify their home court after suffering their first two home losses of the year against USC and UCLA. UO is currently 9-2 at home. If the Ducks can win their remaining four home matches, they will match their best home record since the 2012 season in which they finished 13-3. Since that time, Oregon has a combined record of 74-15 when playing at the Student Tennis Center, good for an astounding .831 winning percentage.

RETURN OF THE 'MAC
After snapping his 11-match win streak with back-to-back losses against Cornell and Iowa, senior Cormac Clissold bounced back in a big way during Oregon's Pac-12 opening weekend. The New South Wales, Australia, native was the only Duck to record singles wins against both UCLA and USC. He defeated the Bruins' No. 62 Logan Staggs, 6-4, 6-4, to record his first career victory over a ranked opponent. He followed that win up with a big three-set win at the No. 4 spot against USC to keep the Ducks upset bid alive and tie the match 3-3.

With his two wins, Clissold leapfrogged Alex Rovello for 10th on the UO all-time wins list. Despite dropping his last match against Santa Clara's Connor Garnett, Clissold remains one of three Ducks to have at least nine singles wins with a 9-3 record this spring. Clissold has also moved into sole possession of second on the UO all-time individual doubles wins list. He has recorded 77 doubles victories over his career at Oregon, winning 56 of those matches when partnered with Thomas Laurent.

THAT CERTAIN JE NE SAIS QUOI
French international Thomas Laurent entered the 2018 spring season as one of the highest ranked players in program history at sixth in the nation. Laurent is coming off a sophomore campaign in which he broke the single-season wins record with a 30-7 overall record. He continued to build on his Oregon legacy this past fall, reaching the semifinals of the ITA All-Americans and ITA Fall Nationals, both program firsts. Laurent finished the fall slate 8-2 overall in singles play with five wins over ranked opponents, including a 5-7, 6-4, 6-0 win over ninth-ranked William Bushamuka of Kentucky in the opening round of the Fall National Championships.

Midway through his junior season, Laurent is eighth on the UO all-time singles wins list with a 67-18 career record. His astonishing .788 winning percentage is currently the best career winning percentage in program history. The only other Duck with a .700 or better win percentage is Jayson Amos, whose career singles record of 93-34 (.732) ranks first on the UO all-time list.

TO BE THE BEST YOU HAVE TO BEAT THE BEST
Four of UO's last five matches have all been against teams currently ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's top 50. The five-match stretch opened with Cornell and Iowa, which currently sit at No. 41 and No. 44, respectively. The Ducks continued their ranked matches by playing No. 4 UCLA and No. 13 USC extremely close.

Despite walking away with the loss, UO has shown it can battle with some of the nation's top teams with Oregon right on the cusp of winning each time. Three of the four losses were decided in either a third set or an extra game played. Throughout that same stretch, six singles matches went into a third set, as well as the doubles points against Iowa and UCLA coming down to tiebreaker sets. The previous tests will all come in handy for UO as four of the Ducks' final eight opponents are currently ranked in the ITA top 50, including No. 3 Stanford.

GRAB YOUR BROOMS
So far this season, the Ducks have recorded seven victories without conceding a single point. UO's single-match dominance has slowly risen since the 2010 season. In 2010, Oregon recorded three match sweeps with that number continually rising each season since, culminating in 10 perfect wins last year. UO has the opportunity to surpass that mark and raise the bar even higher during the final stretch of the season.

LOOKING AHEAD
Following their two upcoming matches, the Ducks will jump right back into conference play as they travel to Washington to take on the Huskies on Saturday, March 31, at 2 p.m.