Duck tennis swings
at home, on the road
The Oregon women’s tennis
team has its first home
matches, and the men try their
luck on the road in Utah
Tennis
Ryan Heath
Freelance Sports Reporter
Home sweet home. That expres
sion has never rung more true than
for the Oregon women’s tennis team.
One week after losing junior Davina
Mendiburu for the season with a tom
ACL and slipping from 34th to 46th in
the nation, the Ducks have their
home opener this weekend at the Stu
dent Tennis Center.
“I think the first road trip has pre
pared us mentally for the upcoming
weekend,” head coach Nils Schyllan
der said. “We know what type of ten
nis we want to play and what we
need to in order to do so.”
Last weekend, the Ducks lost to
unranked Colorado but rebounded
to defeat No. 45 Illinois 4-3, despite
most of the team fighting a flu bug.
Health will be an important factor
in this weekend’s matches, as the
women are set to play both Portland
and Idaho on Saturday, at 10 a.m.
and 6 p.m., respectively.
“I think we have the mental
toughness to play two matches and
do it well,” Schyllander said. “But it
is unfortunate that (Mendiburu) is
hurt. It makes it harder to rotate to
give some players a rest.”
The Ducks will be led by No. 28
Daria Panova as she looks to stay un
defeated in the regular season. Se
nior Monika Gieczys, junior Court
ney Nagle and freshman Jamie
Marshall are all 1-1.
While the women are battling at
home, the Oregon men’s tennis team
will be competing in Provo, Utah,
against Brigham Young and New
Mexico State.
The No. 75 Ducks also welcome
back their No. 1 singles player,
Manuel Kost from an abdominal in
jury that kept him sidelined for most
of January.
Without Kost, the Ducks went 1-1
to start the regular season with a
dominating 7-0 victory over Idaho
and a close 5-2 defeat at the hands of
New Mexico.
“I’m expecting to see more com
petition like we saw on Sunday
against New Mexico,” head coach
Chris Russell said. “We are prepared
for that kind of battle.”
On Saturday, the Ducks take on
the BYU Cougars and the No. 7
doubles team of Carlos Lozano and
Erik Nyman. Ducks Oded Teig and
Sven Swinnen are used to facing
ranked opponents, with victories
against No. 59 Brent Salazar and
Ryan Stotland of New Mexico in the
regular season and a win over No. 2
Michael Calkins and Amer Delic of
Illinois in the pre-season.
“I’m looking for us to stay within
our game plan this weekend,” Rus
sell said. “We seem to start out well,
but we need to stick with the game
plans longer.”
The Ducks play New Mexico State
on Sunday. The women begin their
home season at 10 a.m. Saturday at
the Student Tennis Center, behind
McArthur Court.
Ryan Heath is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.
Hager
continued from page 9
What is most important about the
way Oregon played is that it may fi
nally prove the Ducks can survive
without Williams and Kraayeveld.
Obviously, Williams is not coming
back, but the specter of Kraayeveld
returning this season is still linger
ing around McArthur Court.
That specter is dim, and the
Ducks know that. So to come out a
dominate like the Ducks did — evi
denced by a 22-9 lead midway
through the first — is encouraging.
“We aren’t going to have those
players back and we know it’s going
to be us out there,” Edwards said.
If anyone could be happier than the
Ducks to have the second half of the
season start. I’d like to meet them.
Smith talked about the second
half as almost a second season, a new
beginning to the year that could help
offset the first-half woes.
“This is how (the players) wanted to
start,” she said. “If we could play every
game like this, we will climb up the
Pac-10 standings one game at a time.”
One game at a time is going to be
tough, especially with a conference
that is so unforgiving and inconsis
tent. But if Oregon can play like it
did against the Sun Devils, there
could be a move up in the standings
for the Ducks. After all, they were
voted the Pac-lO’s third-best team
by the media and the conference’s
coaches before the season began.
The Ducks have a lot to prove.
They’ve got eight more contests to
play, and Saturday begins a stretch
that will be crucial to the team’s
well-being.
Arizona visits McArthur Court
Saturday, then the Ducks go down
to Stanford and California.
The Wildcats were defeated, 71
65, by Oregon State on Thursday,
so it’s obvious they are vulnerable
to the upset. That’s an area the
Ducks have seemed to thrive in
this season, and Oregon will get a
chance again against the Cardinal
after losing by just one point, 75
74, on Jan. 11.
Momentum will be key coming
out of the California contest, and
if the Ducks can hold up for the
rest of the season like they did
against Arizona State, they could
be a surprise.
But that’s a big if.
Contact the sports reporter
at hankhager@dailyemerald.com. His
views do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.
Sports brief
Track heads to
Idaho on Saturday
After learning earlier this week
that both the women’s and men’s
track teams would be consolidated
under the direction of current
men’s coach Martin Smith, both
Duck squads will swing back into
action this weekend.
The Ducks will head to the
Bodybuilding.com Invitational in
Nampa, Idaho on Saturday. The
men will send 25 athletes and the
women will send 17 to the Boise
State-hosted meet.
The men’s entrants are high
lighted by Duck football speedster
Sarnie Parker, who will compete in
his first meet of the season. The
women’s entrants are highlighted
by pole vaulter Niki (Reed) McE
wan, who will attempt to capitalize
on her recent success — she tied
the Oregon record of 14 feet, 1 1/4
inches at the Pole Vault Summit
last weekend.
—Peter Hockaday
Women's
continued from page 9
play and earned its redemption, as
the Sun Devils had a comfortable
15-point victory in the first clash
between the two.
Arizona State (12-7, 4-6 Pac
10) had a rough night in front of
the 4,216 fans at The Pit, shoot
ing just 36.7 percent from the
field. The Sun Devils went 10-of
17 on free throws but did go 6-of
12 from downtown.
Oregon’s offense wasn’t much
better, as it shot just 38 percent
from the field and went 2-of-ll on
three-pointers. But the Duck de
fense brought home the victory
with 10 steals and winning the
turnover margin by seven.
“We played really good defense
and that has been our focus,” said
senior Alissa Edwards, who reag
gravated her ankle injury, yet con
tinued to play and says she will be
fine. “They had to take tough
shots and we just played tough.”
Edwards had a solid all-around
performance, adding nine points
and 10 assists to the Oregon of
fense in her 36 minutes.
For Arizona State, sophomore
Kylan Loney led all scorers with
16 points and led the Sun Devils
with four assists. Freshmen Amy
Denson and Kristen Kovesdy also
scored in double figures for the
Sun Devils.
Oregon’s next test comes Satur
day at noon, when it faces Arizona
(13-6, 6-4 Pac-10.) It will be quite
the matchup, as the Wildcats were
upset by Oregon State on Thursday,
and the Ducks look to continue the
successful homestand.
Contact the sports reporter
at jessethomas@dailyemerald.com.
Men's
continued from page 9
leads until the very end, when
Hollins’ free throw with 39.7 sec
onds left tied the game at 81. The
Ducks ran out the clock, but Rid
nour lost the ball with five seconds
left, giving UCLA one last shot to
win the contest. But Ryan Walcott
missed a three pointer and the
game went to overtime.
The Ducks won’t move in the
Pac-10 standings with the win, as
Stanford and Arizona State upset
Arizona and California, respec
tively, meaning that the Cardinal
remain third and the Sun Devils
remained tied for fourth with Ore
gon. If the Ducks can beat USG on
Sunday, they will either move into
a three-way tie for third or hold
fourth by themselves, depending
on the outcome of the ASU-Stan
ford game Saturday.
“This win speaks volumes about
our team and where we’re at right
now,” Kent said. “This team is
starting to expand. SC could be a
really big game for us.”
Oregon and USG will tip off at
noon on Sunday. The game will be
televised on Fox Sports Net.
Contact the sports editor at
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
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