Ducks Look To Capitalize On Big Weekend
What's Up: This week the Ducks have a full slate, taking on three opponents in four days. The Ducks take on an historically strong BYU squad on Thursday. The Cougars have won nine conference championships and have five singles and, four conference doubles champions as a program. Oregon won last seasons matchup 5-2. Saturday, the Ducks play host to Louisiana-Lafayette. The Ragin Cajuns boast a program on the rise, traveling west to take on the Ducks and BYU. Sunday, the Ducks wrap up their weekend against Pacific, who the Ducks beat last season 6-1.
Last Week: The Ducks defeated the Santa Clara Broncos 5-2 to open up their dual season. The win was highlighted by a sweep in doubles and four singles victories. In doubles play, the No. 1 position of Arron Spencer and Sven Swinnen took care of Gernot Fischer and Eric Kochanski, 8-3. The No. 2 position of Thomas Bieri and Manuel Kost upended Kevin McQuaid and Erich Chen, 8-1. Sophomore Markus Schiller and senior Chris King disposed of Taylor Bendilion and Ben Hidalgo, 9-7. The Ducks also earned victories from the No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 positions. Sven Swinnen defeated Erich Chen, 6-2, 6-2 in the No. 2 position. Markus Schiller continued his unbeaten streak (6-0) by defeating Taylor Bendilion, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5. Manuel Kost defeated Eric Kochanski 6-4, 6-4 to earn his first victory of the spring season. Santa Clara’s Gernot Fischer beat Thomas Bieri, 6-2, 6-2 to claim the No. 1 position victory. Bronco Kevin McQuaid took down senior Chris King, 6-3, 7-6 (3) in No. 6 position play.
Coach Russell On Last Week: "It was a good win for us. I felt our doubles play was strong and it is always good to start off the dual season with a victory. We still have a lot of things to work on, but we will continue to improve."
Coach Russell On The Upcoming Weekend: "This will be a challenging and revealing three matches for us. Three ranked opponents in four days-the guys will be up for it, especially at home. BYU has a historically strong program. Louisiana is a program improving every year, and Pacific has typically played us very close. All three are programs that are on the rise, but we like to think that we are as well. The team that have the most hunger this weekend should prevail."
This week’s Scouting report for the upcoming weekend:
#68 BYU- The Cougars (1-1) are coming off of their opening weekend of duals, where they beat Utah State 7-0 before falling to Denver 5-2. Eric Nyman is currently (as of Jan. 13) ranked the No. 82 player in the country by the ITA. Nyman went 1-1 last weekend.
LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE- The Ragin Cajuns (0-1) lost their first dual match of the season 6-1 against No. 2 Baylor. The team is led by Evghenii Corduneanu who is currently rank the No. 88 player in the country by the ITA. Corduneanu posted an 18-6 singles record in the fall.
#72 PACIFIC- The Tigers open up the dual season against the No. 11 Washington Huskies, Jan. 30, in Seattle, Wash. Pacific is led by sophomore Arnar Sigurdsson who posted an impressive 10-3 record in the fall. Lennart Maack was equally impressive, going 8-2.
