Ducks Rally to Beat Washington, 4-3
EUGENE, Ore. – Needing four wins in singles play, the Oregon men's tennis team responded accordingly for a 4-3 triumph Sunday afternoon over Washington at the UO Student Tennis Center. The visitors won the doubles point and led 3-2 before the Ducks rallied with wins at No. 2 and 6 singles. Oregon improves to 7-0 this season with Sunday's victory.
How it Happened: Senior Emmanuel Coste toughed out a 7-6(3), 7-5 win over No. 65 Jack Davis at No. 2 singles to pull the Ducks even at 3-all on the match scoreboard. Within seconds, Luke Vandecasteele got a break at No. 6 to go up 6-5 in the second set. He went on to serve out the set to force a decisive third against the Huskies' Jack Pulliam.
Both player held to start the set but after three-consecutive breaks—two for Vandecasteele—UO was ahead, and after a hold to consolidate, Vandecasteele led 4-2. The Ducks' sophomore maintained his advantage at 5-3 and went on to break Pulliam's serve for a third time in the set to clinch the team win.
The Ducks lost the doubles point for the first time this season but Jesper Klov-Nilsson got Oregon on the board with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 5 singles. The UO sophomore has lost just 19 games in six matches this season.
Washington (4-3) regained the match lead with a straight-set win at No. 1 singles but the Ducks brought it back to even at 2-all with a win at the three spot from freshman Quinn Vandecasteele. However, the visitors put themselves on the verge of victory with a straight-set decision at No. 4 singles. The Huskies led 3-2 at the time before Coste and Luke Vandecasteele posted win to complete the UO rally.
Quotable: "Today we did it the Oregon way with a lot of grit and blue-collar work, and came out on top at the end. It was a great college match." – head coach Nils Schyllander
"Once (Luke) got into the third, I felt really good because you could tell he was physically stronger at that moment. First changeover, he told me 'I can go three out of five sets. I'm fresh, coach' and I knew." – head coach Nils Schyllander
"I feel pretty good. It's kind of hard not to after winning a match like that. This is definitely the dog days of the term, school wise, so it's good for our team to be able to come out there and fight. Plus, it's our third match of the week and we're looking forward to three more (next week) so it could be easy to lay down some times but the fact that we were able to come out here and fight…it's impressive to say the least." – Sophomore Luke Vandecasteele
Notable: Seventh different singles lineup in seven matches … Coste (5-0), Klov-Nilsson (6-0), Quinn Vandecasteele (6-0) remain undefeated in singles play … UO did not lead in the match until the final win at No. 6 singles … first of two matches between the teams this season; play again April 10 in Seattle … Sunday's match did not count toward Pac-12 standings.
Up Next: The Ducks head to Arizona for three matches next week, beginning with a neutral matchup with New Mexico (Feb. 25) in Tempe. Oregon opens conference play at No. 22 Arizona State (Feb. 26) and No. 21 Arizona (Feb. 28).
Oregon 4, Washington 3
Doubles
1. Charlton/Q. Vandecasteele (ORE) vs Alvarez/Davis (UW) – 3-4 [unfinished]
2. Cancel/Chidekh (UW) d. Lam/L. Vandecasteele (ORE) – 6-4
3. Lin/Lumsden (UW) d. Klöv-Nilsson/Soemarno (ORE) – 6-2
Order of Finish: 3, 2
Singles
1. Clement Chidekh (UW) d. No. 30 Joshua Charlton (ORE) – 6-2, 6-3
2. No. 76 Emmanuel Coste (ORE) d. No. 65 Jack Davis (UW) – 7-6(3), 7-5
3. Quinn Vandecasteele (ORE) d. Ewen Lumsden (UW) – 6-4, 7-5
4. Han-Chih Lin (UW) d. Brandon Lam (ORE) – 7-6(8), 6-3
5. Jesper Klov-Nilsson (ORE) d. Adam Torocsik (UW) – 6-2, 6-2
6. Luke Vandecasteele (ORE) vs Jack Pulliam (UW)
Order of Finish: 5, 1, 3, 4, 2, 6
* - clincher
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