Ducks Return To Pac-12 Play At Washington Saturday

EUGENE, Ore. - The Oregon men's tennis team will ride its three-match winning streak straight back into conference play this Saturday, traveling to Washington to take on the Huskies. Both UW and the Ducks are looking for their first win in the Pac-12 after dropping their first two matches against USC and UCLA.

MATCH 18: No. 45 OREGON (12-6, 0-2) vs. No. 49 WASHINGTON (10-8, 0-2)
Saturday, March 31 | 2 p.m.
Seattle, Wash. | Quillian Tennis Stadium
Live Stats: gohuskies.com
Live Video: gohuskies.com

LAST TIME OUT
The Ducks closed out their five-match homestand with back-to-back victories over Drake and UC Santa Barbara this past Saturday and Monday, respectively.

UO opened the weekend with its eighth sweep of the year, defeating the Bulldogs, 7-0. Drake nearly took the doubles point to open the match as both teams went back and forth on all three courts. After Simon Stevens and Ty Gentry won their match at the No. 3 spot, 6-3, both remaining courts were deadlocked at 4-4. With Armando Soemarno and Charles Roberts falling at the No. 1 position, 6-4, the doubles point came down to Thomas Laurent and Cormac Clissold at the No. 2 spot. The Duo rattled off the next two games to win their match and secure the opening point for the Ducks. From there it was all Oregon as UO went on to earn the sweep following a pair of third set victories by Stevens and Clissold.

In their second match, it was a very similar story for the Ducks as they found themselves in another close battle for the doubles point against UCSB. Oregon would end up recording the opening point following wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. In singles play, Akihiro Tanaka continued UO's momentum by recording a shutout victory at the No. 3 spot. Riki Oshima recorded the only other straight-set win of the day at the No. 6 spot to give UO a 3-0 lead. With all four remaining courts heading to a third set, UCSB still had a chance to mount a comeback, but Clissold shut the door with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 win at the No. 4 spot. The Ducks won two of the remaining third sets to record a 6-1 victory.

REACHING THE MOUNTAINTOP
Senior Cormac Clissold and junior Thomas Laurent cemented their place in Oregon history this past weekend. The duo won both of their doubles matches against Drake and UCSB to pass Robin Cambier and Jeff Mullen for the all-time doubles wins record at UO.

"Obviously yeah it feels good," said Clissold of the accomplishment. "But we both know the job's not done yet. We've got the rest of the season to go, and then hopefully postseason, we're going to try and go as far as we can as a team. It's a good accomplishment for Tom and I to get, but it's more about the whole team so hopefully we can go as far as we can into the season and then the postseason."

As a pair, Clissold and Laurent are 58-13 all-time. So far this year, the two Ducks have a team-high 19-6 overall record, going 11-4 during the spring season. Their career winning percentage of .817 is currently the second-highest career doubles winning percentage in UO history. To put that in perspective, only five other doubles teams, including Cambier's and Mullen's all-time leading .838 career winning percentage, have a winning percentage above .700. Clissold and Laurent also made history this past fall winning UO's first-ever ITA Northwest Regional doubles title, thereby earning an automatic bid to the Fall National Championships.

IN THE RANKINGS
After three straight wins, the Ducks rose two spots in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association team rankings to No. 45.

With only the team rankings updated this past week, Thomas Laurent remained at No. 14. He is currently 12-3 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 20-5.

Laurent and Cormac Clissold stayed at No. 36 as well in the doubles rankings. The duo is currently on a three-match winning streak heading into this weekend. Their only loss in the past five matches came at the hands of USC's then No. 52 ranked pair of Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven.

TANAKA POSTS A CLEAN SWEEP
Senior Akihiro Tanaka recorded his first career sweep as a Duck in UO's last outing against UC Santa Barbara. The Japanese international flew through UCSB's Simon Freund, 6-0, 6-0, at the No. 3 position. The shutout victory was only the Ducks second of the season, following freshman Riki Oshima's sweep against Bence Da Re during UO's season-opener against Idaho. Oregon had only one shutout victory last spring, coming from then senior Jayson Amos against Tulane's Tyler Shick.

HOME SWEET HOME
With only two home matches left this season, the Ducks have a chance to record their best home record since the 2012 spring season. After winning its last three home matches, UO is now 11-2 at the Student Tennis Center. Following this Saturday's match at Washington, the Ducks will have their final two home matches of the year, hosting Arizona and Arizona State. If Oregon can win both those matches, it will match the 2012 win total of 13-3. Since that time, Oregon has a combined record of 76-15 when playing at the Student Tennis Center, an astounding .835 winning percentage.

GRAB YOUR BROOMS
So far this season, the Ducks have recorded eight victories without conceding a single point, including their most recent 7-0 victory over Drake. 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. With four of its final six matches against Pac-12 opponents who are still searching for a conference win, UO still has an opportunity to tie last year's shutout record.

TY REFUSES TO DIE
In UO's last match against UC Santa Barbara, sophomore Ty Gentry came back after losing his opening set to win his singles match in three sets for the second time this season. Dropping the opening set by a score of 6-4 both times, Gentry has been able to rally to win dropping only four games, and six points in a 10-point tiebreaker, to win each match. Thomas Laurent is the only other Duck this spring to win a match after dropping his opening set, defeating Wisconsin's Chema Carranza, 5-7, 7-6, 6-3. So far this spring, Gentry has lost only one singles match spoting an 11-1 record in dual play.

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.

After winning his last three singles matches, Laurent is now tied with Oded Teig for seventh on the UO all-time singles wins list with a 69-18 career record. His astonishing .793 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
The Ducks will have some stiff competition to close out the season with five of their six final opponents currently ranked in the ITA top 50. Washington just entered the latest rankings at No. 49, while both Arizona State and Utah are No. 34 and No. 39 respectively. In order to make one last push in the Pac-12 standings, UO will have to close out the season strong, taking on No. 3 Stanford and No. 30 California in its final two matches of the year.

LOOKING AHEAD
Following the trip north to Washington, the Ducks will have their final two home matches of the season on Friday, April 6, and Sunday, April 8. UO will host both Arizona schools in their final home stand starting with No. 34 Arizona State followed by Arizona.