Ducks Serve Up Dual Season at ITA Kickoff Weekend
01/21/16 | Women's Tennis
EUGENE – Coming off a successful weekend at the Long Beach Invitational, the Oregon women's tennis team heads south to Lubbock, Texas, to compete at the ITA Kickoff Weekend.
The Ducks will face off with 17th-ranked host Texas Tech at 9 a.m. Saturday to open the weekend, followed by a showdown with either No. 30 Virginia Tech or No. 58 Illinois at 8 a.m. on Sunday.
TOURNAMENT FORMAT
The two-day ITA Kickoff Weekend features 60 teams competing at 15 tournament sites around the country. Each site hosts four teams, seeded one through four, that will compete in a bracket-style event. The fourth-seeded Ducks will play the first-seeded Red Raiders on Saturday while the two and three seeds Virginia Tech and Illinois play each other. If the Ducks knock off Texas Tech, they'll advance to play the winner of the other match Sunday. If Oregon drops Saturday's match, the team will play the loser of the Virginia Tech and Illinois match the following day. The winner from each site automatically qualifies for the 2016 ITA National Women's Team Indoor Championships Feb. 5-8 in Madison, Wis.
LAST TIME OUT
The Ducks opened the spring season by participating in the Long Beach Invitational last weekend. Oregon went an impressive 28-8 overall in three-day event.
Five Ducks turned in a perfect weekend in singles play. Junior Marlou Kluiving, sophomore Kennan Johnson and freshmen Daniela Nasser, Shweta Sangwan and Christi Woodson each went 3-0 in singles the hidden dual tournament. Johnson knocked off the second ranked opponent of her sophomore season with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over No. 62 Julia O'Loughlin of Denver on Saturday.
Oregon went 8-4 in doubles play, led by its No. 1 doubles team of Nia Rose and Alyssa Tobita, who went 2-1 in three matches this weekend. Two Ducks, Woodson and Kluiving, went undefeated in both singles and doubles.
DUCKS IN THE RANKINGS
The Oregon women's tennis team moved up two spots to No. 60 in the latest set of team rankings released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association on Wednesday. Freshman Shweta Sangwan and sophomore Kennan Johnson are slotted at No. 59 in the doubles rankings.
The Ducks enter the spring dual season ranked for the first time since 2014. The ranking is Oregon's highest to begin the season since opening the spring of 2009 at No. 55.
Sangwan and Johnson sit in a three-way tie for No. 59 in the ITA doubles rankings after going 4-1 as a tandem in the fall and advancing to the semifinals of the doubles main draw at the Jack Kramer Invitational in November. Johnson makes her second appearance in the poll after coming in at No. 56 in the ITA preseason doubles rankings with teammate Marlou Kluiving. The selection marks Sangwan's first time in the rankings.
Sangwan and Johnson are ranked No. 6 in the regional doubles rankings. Johnson is ranked No. 18 in the region in singles.
EYEING THE OPPONENTS
All four teams competing at the Lubbock site of the ITA Kickoff Weekend hold a national ranking: No. 17 Texas Tech, No. 30 Virginia Tech, No. 58 Illinois and No. 60 Oregon. The four teams' rosters combine to feature four ranked singles players and two ranked doubles teams. Ranked singles players at the tournament include No. 77 Gabriela Talaba of Texas Tech, No. 104 Ilinca Stoica of Virginia Tech, No. 108 Caroline Daxhelet of Virginia Tech and No. 114 Jerricka Boone of Illinois. Lynn Kiro and Alex Valenstein of Texas Tech make up the only non-Oregon ranked doubles team competing in Lubbock this weekend, coming in at No. 24. Illinois (2-0) and Virginia Tech (2-0) each opened their season last weekend. The Hokies knocked off Radford, 7-0, last Saturday, before defeating Western Carolina, 6-1, later that day. On Saturday, the Ilini notched sweeps over IUPUI and Eastern Illinois to earn their 2-0 mark.
SPOILS OF YOUTH
For the first time since the 2009-10 season, the Oregon women's tennis team will not have a “Senior Day” in 2016. This year's Oregon roster includes two juniors, three sophomores and four freshmen, but no seniors.
FROM FAR AND WIDE
The 2016 Oregon women's tennis roster is made up of players from all corners of the country and globe. The Ducks hail from five different states (California, Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, and New York) and three different countries (India, Netherlands and the United States).
ROAD WARRIORS
The Ducks will spend much of the season on the road, with 10 of their 12 non-conference dual matches away from home. Oregon will host Idaho on Jan. 30 and Boise State on March 5 for its two non-conference home matches.
YOUNG GUNS
Newcomers Shweta Sangwan (10-4) and Kennan Johnson (9-3) both started their Oregon careers off on the right foot with big performances in their first four collegiate tournaments. Sangwan won the Gray flight singles championship in her first tournament as a Duck at the WSU Invitational. In the Ducks' final appearance of the fall at the Jack Kramer Invitational, Sangwan won four matches, including a victory over then No. 36 Madison Westby of USC , to advance as far as the main draw semifinals, while Johnson advanced to the quarterfinals before colliding with Sangwan. The two teammates also paired up to go 4-1 as a tandem in the fall and open the 2016 season slotted as the 56th-ranked doubles team in the country. Both went 3-0 at last weekend's Long Beach Invitational.
POWERHOUSE PAIR
Oregon's duo of Nia Rose and Alyssa Tobita was a force to be reckoned with at the No. 1 position last season. The two compiled a 25-10 doubles record during the 2014-15 season. Their 25 wins surpassed the former Duck pair of Dominika Dieskova and Daria Panova (23-12) for the No. 2 spot on the all-time doubles single-season wins list. Rose and Tobita served up the 2016 season with a 2-1 weekend at the Long Beach Invitational.
NO SOPHOMORE SLUMP
Marlou Kluiving had a monstrous sophomore campaign in 2015, owning a 23-9 overall record in singles play. The 23 wins tied her with Katie Glyn and Pavlina Smatova for seventh on the all-time single-season singles wins list. After our wins in the fall and three wins last weekend, Kluiving is currently Oregon's active leader in singles wins with 34.
SILVERIO INKS FIVE-STAR JULIA ESHET
Oregon women's tennis head coach Alison Silverio announced the signing of five-star recruit Julia Eshet in November. A native of Hollywood, Fla., Eshet is ranked No. 5 in the state of Florida, No. 9 in the southeast region and No. 35 nationally, according to TennisRecruiting.net.
With a 25-8 overall record on the junior circuit, Eshet is 9-1 against four-star recruits, 7-4 against fellow five-star recruits and 2-2 against blue-chip recruits. In March, Eshet defeated top-seeded Tiffany Huber, 6-3, 6-0, in the finals of the Biscayne Tennis Open to take home the singles title. A week earlier, she tallied two straight-set wins to reach the finals at the Tier One Tennis Spring L6 Championships.
In the last year, Eshet has also earned singles titles at the USTA Florida Junior State Championships, the Holiday Level 6 Championships and the Broward Turkey Bowl.
LOOKING FORWARD
After their appearance at the ITA Kickoff Weekend, the Ducks return home to Eugene to host Idaho on Saturday, Jan. 30 for the team's home opener.
Players Mentioned
