University of Oregon
Brigham Young
No. 23 Ducks Welcome BYU and Drake This Weekend
02/23/17 | Men's Tennis
RANKED FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS SEASON, NO. 23 OREGON WILL FACE BYU AND NO. 42 DRAKE THIS WEEKEND AT THE STUDENT TENNIS CENTER
#23 Oregon (8-2) vs. BYU (7-5)
Friday, Feb. 24 | 5 p.m.
Student Tennis Center | Eugene, Ore.
Live Scoring
Live Streams
MATCH #12
#23 Oregon (8-2) vs. #42 Drake (6-3)
Sunday, Feb. 26 | 1 p.m.
Student Tennis Center | Eugene, Ore.
Promotion: Breakfast with the Ducks (doughnuts)
Live Scoring
Live Streams
WEEKLY NOTES
This Week:
The 23rd-ranked Ducks return home this week to face BYU (Fri., 5 p.m.) and No. 42 Drake (Sun., 1 p.m.) at the Student Tennis Center. Oregon is off to an 8-2 start to open ths spring season, and skyrocketed into the latest ITA top 25 at No. 23. Oregon will play its final two non-conference home matches this weekend before going on the road to finish out the non-conference slate. The Ducks' match against 42nd-ranked Drake will be their second match against a ranked team this season; Oregon fell in a very tight match to then-No. 9 Texas in the Austin regional final of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend in January.
What to Watch For:
Live scoring for both matches will be available on the tennis schedule on GoDucks.com, as well as links to live streams for all six courts at the Baseline Tennis Center. Doubles will be played first, followed shortly by singles play on all six courts.
Ducks Split in Minneapolis:
Oregon came away with a split over the weekend in Minneapolis, beating Middle Tennessee State, 4-0, on Saturday for its fifth straight win before falling to Minnesota on Sunday, 5-2, for its first loss of the month of February. Thomas Laurent, Akihiro Tanaka and Ty Gentry each won their singles matches to life Oregon past MTSU. The Ducks won the doubles point in both matches, making it seven straight matches in which they have done so. Laurent continued his incredible play in singles, winning twice over the weekend to extend his impressive winning streak to 13, just two shy of the program record. Laurent's two wins also featured a victory over the 51st-ranked player in the country on Sunday.
Laurent Continues Singles Dominance:
Standout sophomore Thomas Laurent has been stellar in singles to start his collegiate career. After going 19-6 in singles as a freshman in 2016, Laurent is 19-2 this season and 9-0 in dual matches to put his career record at an astounding 38-8 (.826). Laurent has now won 13 straight matches, and is only two short of the program record for consecutive singles matches won of 15. Laurent is 9-0 at No. 1 singles this season, and is 13-0 in his career at the top spot.
??????Clissold and Laurent Shining in Doubles:
Despite dropping a doubles match against Rice at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, the duo of Thomas Laurent and Cormac Clissold has been as steady as they come since the two teamed up for the first time in 2016. The pair is now 28-3 (.903) all-time together, putting them in a tie for eighth on the Oregon all-time doubles list. The duo is 13-2 together this season and 8-1 in dual matches, and they set the program single-season record last year with 15 consecutive wins. The duo of Jayson Amos and Armando Soemarno is right behind with an all-time record of 23-4 (.852), putting them in a tie for 13th on the UO all-time list.
Ducks in the Rankings:
The Ducks vaulted themselves into the top 25 in the latest ITA rankings released on Feb. 21, slotting in at No. 23 adter their strong start to the spring season. Thomas Laurent moved up two spots to No. 36 in the singles rankings with his stellar play throughout the season. In doubles, Laurent and Cormac Clissold remained in the rankings at No. 47, while Jayson Amos and Armando Soemarno flew up 12 spots in the newest rankings to No. 39. Amos and Soemaerno were the ninth-ranked doubles pair in the preseason rankings.
Schyllander Earns Win No. 200:
Nils Schyllander reached a significant milestone with a 4-0 win over Fresno State on February 9. The win marked the 200th of Schyllander's career, with all 200 coming at the University of Oregon. Now in his 11th season at the helm of the Oregon men's tennis program, Schyllander has elevated the Ducks to a new level of success and now sits at 202 career wins. Since the Pac-10 became the Pac-12 in 2011, Schyllander's teams have gone 92-45 (.668), and have won at least 15 matches each season since 2012. The Ducks took fifth in the Pac-12 last year for the second straight year, and earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons. Oregon now looks to build on last year's first-ever NCAA Tournament win as it returns six of its seven top contributors from last season's team.
Amos in Final Year with Records in Sight:
In his final season with the Ducks, senior Jayson Amos has enjoyed a rapid rise in the Oregon record book. Amos moved into a tie for second two weeks ago on the Oregon all-time list with 84 career singles wins, only six behind former teammate Robin Cambier's school record of 90. Amos is also tied for eighth in UO history on the doubles career wins list with 60. The native of Mission Viejo, Calif., is also one of only two players in UO history to have three straight seasons of at least 22 singles wins, joining Cambier, and fell just one singles win short of the all-time single-season record with a 28-6 mark last year.
Breaking Down the Roster:
This year's squad features a mix of seasoned veterans and talented newcomers. Jayson Amos returns for his senior season to lead the squad, along with juniors Cormac Clissold and Simon Stevens. Clissold and Stevens each earned double-digit singles wins for the Ducks last year, and Stevens tied the program record for consecutive singles wins (15) as a freshman in 2015 while Clissold and sophomore Thomas Laurent set the program record with 15 straight doubles wins last year.
Laurent, a sophomore, is a big piece for the Ducks in both singles and doubles. The Ducks also return two more experienced sophomores in Ethan Young-Smith and Armando Soemarno. Young-Smith went 21-13 in singles as a freshman in 2016, and Soemarno teamed up with Amos to go 18-3 overall and get as high as No. 9 in the ITA doubles rankings.
Three newcomers join the Oregon squad in 2016-17: freshmen Ty Gentry and Fabian Soemarno and junior transfer Akihiro Tanaka. Gentry is in his first collegiate dual match season as a five-star recruit out of Tumwater High School in Washington, and Soemarno joins his brother, Fabian, with hopes of cracking the Oregon lineup as a freshman. Tanaka comes to Oregon out of Asia University in Tokyo, Japan, as a highly-regarded tranfer.
Players Mentioned
