Men's Tennis Prepares For Final Home Matches

EUGENE, Ore. - The Oregon men's tennis team returns to Eugene for its final two home matches of the season this weekend. The Ducks host No. 37 Arizona State Friday at 3 p.m., before taking on Arizona Sunday in UO's senior day match at 12 p.m. These final two home matches will be extremely important in terms of ranking in the Pac-12 as both the Sun Devils and Wildcats are searching for their first conference win, while UO looks to make a late push in the standings.

MATCH 20: No. 41 OREGON (13-6, 1-2) vs. No. 37 ARIZONA STATE (11-7, 0-2)
Friday, April 6 | 3 p.m.
Eugene, Ore. | Student Tennis Center
Live Stats: GoDucks.com
Live Video: GoDucks.com

MATCH 21: No. 41 OREGON (13-6, 1-2) vs. ARIZONA (15-9, 0-3)
Sunday, April 8 | 11 a.m.
Eugene, Ore. | Student Tennis Center
Live Stats: GoDucks.com
Live Video: GoDucks.com

INTERVIEWS
Senior Akihiro Tanaka

Senior Simon Stevens

Senior Cormac Clissold

WEEKLY NOTES
LAST TIME OUT
The Ducks went down to the wire at No. 49 Washington, clinching their first Pac-12 win in dramatic fashion by downing the Huskies, 4Cormac Clissoldtch decided by a third-set victory.

The pairs of Cormac Clissold and Thomas Laurent along with Simon Stevens and Ty Gentry secured the opening point with wins from the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively. The doubles point would prove to be a major factor as UW picked up two quick victories to open singles play and take a 2-1 lead.

Laurent tied the match with a win at the No. 1 spot, while the remaining three courts were locked in either a tiebreaker or a third set. The Huskies were on the brink of the match victory as Gentry fell in three sets at the No. 5 spot. Clissold and freshman Riki Oshima attempted to keep UO alive after dropping their opening sets, with both Ducks in tied 6-6 in their second sets.

After fighting off two match points, Clissold was able to send his match into a third set, eventually beating UW's Amit Batta, 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-1, to tie the match, 3-3. Meanwhile, Oshima fought off UW's Alexis Alvarez to force a third set of his own. Oshima secured the victory for Oregon in the final set, winning by a score of 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.

IN THE RANKINGS
After picking up their fourth straight win, the Ducks continued to climb in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association team rankings, jumping up four spots to No. 41.

Despite four straight wins, including two over ranked opponents, Thomas Laurent dropped to No. 22 in the singles rankings. He is currently 13-3 this spring season, with two of his three losses coming against opponents ranked in the top 20. Laurent has played every match this seasonCormac Clissoldpot, with an overall record of 21-5.

Laurent and Cormac Clissold rose five spots to No. 31 in the doubles rankings. The duo has won their last four matches, breaking the UO all-time doubles wins record against UCSB. Their only loss in the past five matches came at the hands of USC's then No. 52 ranked pair of Jack Jaede and Laurens Verboven.

WHERE THE CARDS FALL
With only five matches left this season, the Ducks have a chance to make some noise in the Pac-12 standings. After recording their first conference win of the year at Washington, the Ducks currently sit at fifth in the standings with a 1-2 record. UO has a favorable final stretch facing three of the four teams currently sitting below Oregon, with this weekend's opponents still looking for their first Pac-12 win. The Ducks' biggest tests will come at Utah and at Stanford. Utah is currently 19-2 overall and 2-0 in the conference, but UO swept the Utes last season 4-0. The Ducks faced Stanford earlier this season at the ITA Kick-Off weekend falling to the Cardinal 4-0. Although it looks like No. 2 UCLA will be uncatchable, sitting at the top of the conference standings with a 4-0 record, if UO can win at least three of its final five matches, it will have a chance to be among the top four teams in the conference.

THIS IS OUR HOUSE
With the final two home matches of the season this weekend, the Ducks can secure their their best home record since the 2012 spring season. After winning its last three home matches, UO is now 11-2 at the Student Tennis Center. If Oregon can win both its matches against Arizona State and Arizona, it will match the 2012 win total of 13-3. Since that time, Oregon has a combined record of 76-15 when playing at the Student Tennis Center, an astounding .835 winning percentage.

ONE LAST GO-ROUND
Sunday's match against Arizona marks the final home match for three Cormac ClissoldOregon men's tennis team, Akihiro Tanaka, Simon Stevens and Cormac Clissold.

Originally from Yokohama, Kanagawa, Tanaka will graduate after two seasons with the Ducks. He was named the 2017 ITA Northwest Rookie of the Year after finishing last season with a 16-8 singles record. So far this season, he is 15-9 overall recording his first shutout victory at UO during the Ducks' recent match against UC Santa Barbara.

Stevens is in the midst of his fourth season with the Ducks. He currently has a career singles record of 71-37, ranking him sixth on the UO career wins list. Originally from Charleroi, Belgium, Stevens will also finish his career at Oregon as one of the top doubles players, currently ranking fourth on the all-time individual doubles wins list with 74.

Clissold will leave UO having established himself as one of the Ducks' elite doubles players. Partnering with junior Thomas Laurent for the past three seasons, the duo just recently broke the UO all-time doubles wins record with a career record of 58-13. Individually, Clissold has accrued 80 wins in doubles play, ranking him second on the UO all-time list. Originally from New South Wales, Austrailia, Clissold is currently 18-5 this season, giving him a career singles record of 64-29, which is good enough to put him in a tie for ninth on the UO all-time wins list.

Cormac Clissoldbr> REACHING THE MOUNTAINTOP
Senior Cormac Clissold and junior Thomas Laurent cemented their place in Oregon history this season. With their doubles win against UCSB, they passed Robin Cambier and Jeff Mullen for the all-time doubles wins record at UO.

"Obviously yeah it feels good," said Clissold of the accomplishment. "But we both know the job's not done yet. We've got the rest of the season to go, and then hopefully postseason, we're going to try and go as far as we can as a team."

As a pair, Clissold and Laurent are 59-13 all-time. So far this year, the two Ducks have a team-high 20-6 overall record, going 12-4 during the spring season. Their career winning percentage of .819 is currently the second-highest career doubles winning percentage in UO history. To put that in perspective, only five other doubles teams, including Cambier's and Mullen's all-time leading .838 career winning percentage, have a winning percentage above .700. Clissold and Laurent also made history this past fall winning UO's first-ever ITA Northwest Regional doubles title, thereby earning an automatic bid to the Fall National Championships.

GRAB YOUR BROOMS
So far this season, the Ducks have recorded eight victories without conceding a single point, including their most recent 7-0 victory over Drake. UO's single-match dominance has slowly risen since the 2010 season. In 2010, Oregon recorded three match sweeps with that number continually rising each season since, culminating in 10 perfect wins last year. With four of its final six matches against Pac-12 opponents who are still searching for a conference win, UO still has an opportunity to tie last year's shutout record.

TO BE THE BEST YOU HAVE TO BEAT THE BEST
The Ducks will have some stiff competition to close out the season with four of their final five opponents currently ranked in the ITA top 50. While Arizona is currently unranked, Arizona State is No. 37 while Utah is No. 32. UO will have to close out the season strong, taking on No. 4 Stanford and No. 34 California in its final two matches of the year.

LOOKING AHEAD
The Ducks will hit the road for their final three matches, opening the three-match stretch at Utah Saturday, April 14, at 11 a.m. PT.