Ducks Fly To Tucson, Salt Lake City for a Pair of Matches
The Ducks (11-8, 0-4) will partake in their second road trip of the Pac-12 season when they square off with Arizona on Friday, April 10 at 11:30 a.m (PT) in Tucson, Ariz., and then with Utah in Salt Lake City on Sunday, April 12 at 11 a.m. (PT). All three teams, including Washington – Oregon’s travel partner – will be looking for their first Pac-12 win of the season.
Scouting the Wildcats
Arizona is 8-15 on the year and 0-4 in the Pac-12. The Wildcats have won just two out of their last 10 matches after starting the season 6-7.
They are led by 56th-ranked Naoki Takeda, a junior from Osaka, Japan, who is 22-5 on the year and 14-2 in duals playing at the No. 1 position. He is 3-1 against nationally ranked players, but he has not played in the Wildcats’ last four matches.
Besides Takeda, Arizona does not have one singles player who has a winning record on the year. Takeda has teamed with Sumeet Shinde at the No. 1 doubles spot to produce a 4-5 record during the dual season, and teammates Jason Jaruvang and David Mushayev compete together on court two and have had considerable success in the spring season, going 3-2.
Scouting the Utes
Although winless in Pac-12 play, Utah has a 10-10 record and most importantly is 7-2 while playing in the friendly confines of the Eccles Tennis Center. The Utes have logged two ranked wins – a 6-1 victory over No. 70 Utah State and 4-1 win over No. 41 New Mexico.
After competing in the beginning of the spring season, the Utes have recently been without their senior leader and second team All-Pac-12 player, Slim Hanza, since late February. The Tunisia, Africa, native is 6-2 on the year on the year playing almost exclusively on court one. Last year he put together a 13-8 record in duals and went 3-3 against nationally ranked opponents.
The Utes’ best doubles team consists of junior Matt Cowley and senior Cedric Willems, who currently are 10-6 in the spring season playing at the No. 1 doubles position.
Last Time Out
The Ducks were within striking distance of pulling off the upset against No. 38 Stanford, but UO fell just short and ended up dropping the match last Friday 4-3 at the Student Tennis Center. After losing the doubles point, Oregon mounted a furious comeback led by Daan Maasland’s 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 win over the 43rd-ranked Tom Fawcett on court one.
Jayson Amos also earned a quality win when he took down the Cardinal’s Nolan Paige in straight sets 7-6 (3), 6-1. Simon Stevens earned his 12th-straight singles victory of the spring season by pulling off the comebacker against David Wilczynski 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 on court three. The Ducks had a chance to win it with the match tied at 3-3, but the home team was unable to pull it off.
In the match on Saturday against No. 33 California, the Ducks managed a pair of singles wins courtesy of Amos and Stevens, but were unable to win the overall match, falling 5-2 to the Golden Bears. Stevens defeated Cal Senior Gregory Bayane in three sets 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 and Amos enjoyed his second singles win of the weekend in knocking off Oskar Wikberg.
Recent History
Oregon enters Friday’s match riding a four-match winning streak against the Wildcats. The Ducks beat U of A 4-1 last year in Eugene behind a doubles point and singles victories from Maasland, Amos and former UO player Robin Cambier.
Since the Utes joined the Pac-12 in 2011, Utah has earned a slight advantage in the series, winning two out of three matches in the past three years. Oregon defeated Utah 4-3 in 2012, but the Utes have won the past two matches.
Stevens’ Streak
The freshman from Charleroi, Belgium, has now won 13-consecutive singles matches in the spring season. Stevens is the only player in the Pac-12 (with at least double-digit singles wins) who is undefeated in duals. His overall record of 18-3 gives him the best winning percentage on the team (85.7%) and the second-most wins on the team.
Maasland Rewarded
Playing No. 1 in the Pac-12 brings about stiff competition, and the junior from Geldrop, Netherlands has handled it admirably. He dropped his first match of conference play 6-4, 6-3 to 15th-ranked Dennis Mkrtchian of UCLA, but then rattled off two top-125 wins with victories over USC’s 114th-ranked Eric Johnson (7-6 (3), 6-3) and Stanford’s 43rd-ranked Tom Fawcett (6-1, 4-6, 6-3). He was unable to pull off three in a row, losing to California’s 56th-ranked Andre Goransson (1-6, 7-5, 6-1).
As of Tuesday, April 7 when the new ITA rankings came out, Maasland enters this weekend’s matches as the 122nd-ranked singles player in the country. This is the first time that a Duck has been ranked in the top-125 of the ITA rankings this season.
Amos is Rolling
For the second-straight year, the sophomore from Mission Viejo, Calif., has reached the 20-win plateau in singles play (20-9). After dropping his first two matches of Pac-12 play, Amos responded with a pair of straight-set victories over opponents from Stanford and Cal. He has won five out his last seven matches.
In not even two full years as a Duck, he possesses 44 singles wins, putting him on pace to contend for the most singles victories in school history (Robin Cambier, 2010-14: 90-43).
