Laurent’s Run Halted At ITA All-Americans, Ducks Open UCSB Classic

Friday, October 7

Tulsa, OK

TBD

University of Oregon

ITA All-American

Photo by: GoDucks.com

Laurent’s Run Halted At ITA All-Americans, Ducks Open UCSB Classic

10/08/16 | Men's Tennis

By: Nate Krueger

EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon men's tennis sophomore Thomas Laurent saw his run at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla. end in the second round on Friday, while five other Ducks opened their fall season with the first day of the UCSB Fall Classic.

ITA All-Americans: After advancing through the singles qualifiers with three consecutive wins and opening the singles main draw with a win on Thursday, Laurent faced his toughest test of the week in Wake Forest's Skander Mansouri, the seventh-ranked singles player in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Laurent hung in with Mansouri, but was unable to come out with a victory as he fell, 6-4, 6-4. The loss ends Laurent's week in Tulsa.

Advancing out of the singles qualifiers and winning his opening match in the main draw is an impressive feat for Laurent, who is only a sophomore after going 19-6 in singles last season as a freshman, tied for the third most wins on the team. Laurent will look to use this momentum going into the ITA Regionals on Cot. 13-17 in Berkeley, Calif.

UCSB Fall Classic: It was an up-and-down day for the five competing Ducks in Santa Barbara, with mixed results across the board.

Returners Cormac Clissold and Ethan Young-Smith "did what was expected out of them," according to Associate Head Coach Jonas Piibor, as the pair each came out with victories in their opening singles matches. Clissold edged out Antoine Noel of Cal Poly, 6-7, 6-1, 7-5, in singles flight A to move into the champions side of the bracket. Young-Smith, playing in singles flight B, likewise advanced to the champions portion of his bracket with a 6-1, 7-5 win against UC Davis' Jesse Ross.

Elsewhere in singles play for the Ducks, the results were not quite as kind. Junior Simon Stevens dropped his opening match in flight A to Eli Whittle of UC Davis, 3-6, 4-6. Newcomers Ty Gentry and Fabian Soemarno struggled as well making their Duck debuts, with Gentry dropping a 4-6, 5-7 decision to San Francisco's Woravin Kumthonkittikul in flight B and Soemarno falling 4-6. 4-6 to California's Ryan Shen.

"This was not the first day that I expected out of this group," Piibor said. "Overall, we need to perform better in all areas. Guys need to be able to step up to the challenge."

The results were mixed in doubles play as well for the Ducks, as the duo of Clissold and Soemarno lost their match to a UC Davis pair, 6-8, while Gentry and Stevens teamed up to take down a duo from Pacific, 8-6.

Up Next: With Laurent finished in Tulsa the attention on the program will shift completely to the Ducks competing in Santa Barbara, as they prepare for today's second day of competition.