Eugene, Ore. - The Eastern Washington men's tennis team started its 2015 season by battling both Oregon on Saturday, January 10, and Seattle on Sunday, January 11, in back-to-back matches in Eugene, Ore. Despite a hard fought performance, the Eagles fell to the Ducks, by a final score of 7-0, and the Redhawks, by a score of 5-2.
The Eagles drop to 0-2 on the young season, while OU improves to 2-0 to start the year. SU also finished the weekend at 1-1.
"While I am glad that the guys gave their very best, we still have some work to do where we are executing when we need to. We had plenty of opportunities. Executing the bigger points is what we need," said head coach Steve Clark.
In Saturday's match against Oregon, EWU displayed its resiliency against the 44th ranked team in the country by bringing both a singles and a doubles match to a close final score. The combination of junior Luke Thompson and sophomore Wacil Bendjelti was able to push the Ducks' Clissold/Sardu to the brink in the final doubles match of the day, but ultimately fell by a final result of 7-6 (3). Additionally, junior Eduardo Bringold played the closest singles match of the day against Oregon's Cormac Clissold by nearly pulling of a win in the first set of the match (7-5, 6-3).
Against Seattle, Eastern was able to show heart once again against a tough opponent. The Eagles' two points came in the singles portion of the afternoon when sophomore Robert Dula defeated the Redhawks' best player in William Topp 7-6 (7-5), 6-0, and Bringold topped Connor Leahy 6-1,1-6, 6-3 in a tough three-set match. In another nail-biter, Bendjelti brought his match against Ian Clare to three sets in the fourth position, but lost by final score of 6-2, 2-6, 1-0 (10-8).
Dula and freshman Vuk Vuckovic were able to pull off EWU's only doubles victory of the weekend against SU's number one combination of Stormans/Leahy (6-1). Shortly after Eastern brought the doubles portion to a 1-1 tie, the combination of Rendell Burghart and Bendjelti were in prime position to earn EWU a third overall point with the opening serve of the match. However, in a back and forth trial, they fell 7-5 to Seattle's Clare/Alderson.
Clark continued to comment on the weekend by stating, "On the good side Vuk and Robert won the terminator point in doubles (first off with a win). Eduardo showed guts by winning the terminator point in singles despite his injured back. Finally, Dula was able to earn a double win point in both singles and doubles."
"In short, some of the returners have to dig deep to confront and embrace the pressure," said Clark.
The Eagles' season continues next weekend when they will look to bounce back in a close to home match against Utah State in Spokane, Wash, on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 3:00 p.m.
