t was only a matter of time before history was made.

On Monday afternoon, the Oregon doubles pair of Cormac Clissold and Thomas Laurent  won their 58th career match, passing Jeff Mullen and Robin Cambier for the program record for doubles wins, with 58.

The win kickstarted a successful match for the Ducks in its 6-1 win over UC Santa Barbara at the Student Tennis Center.

Clissold and Laurent gave Oregon the upper hand in doubles with a 6-4 win over Simon Freund and Joseph Rotheram. The win gives the Oregon pair the program record, still with at least six matches left.  Armando Soemarno and Charles Roberts clinched the doubles point and gave the Ducks the early 1-0 lead with a 6-4 win of their own.

In singles, the Ducks continued to roll. Akihiro Tanaka dominated Freund with a convincing 6-0, 6-0 win to put Oregon up 2-0. Riki Oshima put the Ducks up 3-0 with a 6-3, 6-1 win of his own.

Clissold clinched the win for the Ducks with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 win over Anders Holm.

With the match in hand, Ty Gentry and Laurent were still able to pull out victories to give Oregon a 6-1 win.

Up next for the Ducks is a PAC-12 matchup versus Washington on Saturday.

Follow Cole Kundich on Twitter @ckundich

The post Clissold, Laurent make history in Ducks win over UC Santa Barbara appeared first on Emerald Media.

With 30 seconds remaining and the Ducks trailing 8-7 to USC, head coach Katrina Dowd called a timeout to draw up one last attack.

It paid off. Oregon’s Jill Zubillaga scored with eight seconds remaining to send the match to overtime. That ended up being as close as the Ducks would get to pulling off the upset, though, losing 9-8 to No. 12 USC in Los Angeles.

On a free position shot in overtime, the Trojans were able to escape with a win against a Ducks team that was looking to go 2-0 on its road swing after a 14-6 win over Arizona State on Friday night.

Zubillaga’s game-tying goal was her second of the game. It wasn’t the first time the Ducks clawed from behind either. Oregon fell behind 3-0, 4-1, and then 6-2 before scoring three straight goals to threaten USC.

Shannon Williams also found the back of the net twice, and Mariah Gatti led the team with three goals. Brittany Reed finished with a season-high 15 saves.

Even with the loss, Sunday can be seen as an encouraging step for a Ducks team that was dominated in a 19-8 loss to No. 18 Stanford just one week ago.

Oregon welcomes Colorado to Pape Field on March 23.

Follow Cole Kundich on Twitter @ckundich

The post Ducks drop overtime thriller to No. 12 USC appeared first on Emerald Media.

In its first ever game versus Arizona State, the Ducks dominated the Sun Devils, coming away with a 14-6 win on Friday night in Tempe.

Currently in their first season in program history, Arizona State gave the Pac-12 the minimum requirement of six participating schools to form its own conference. Oregon gave them a taste of elevated play that the Sun Devils hope to one day meet.

The Ducks didn’t wait long, either. Jill Zubillaga scored 32 seconds into the game to give Oregon the quick 1-0 lead. It was the first of four goals she scored on the night.

Mariah Gatti, Claire Domshick, Natalie Modly, Shannon Williams and two more from Zubillaga propelled Oregon to a 7-0. The Sun Devils responded with two straight goals at the end of the first half and beginning of the second half, but that would be as much momentum as they would get.

The Ducks scored five of next six goals to go up 12-3 with just under 12 minutes remaining. They’d coast the rest of the way, coming away with the eight-goal win.

Goalie Brittany Reed tied her season-high with 11 saves.

The Ducks take on No. 12 USC on Sunday at 12 p.m.

Follow Cole Kundich on Twitter @ckundich

The post Oregon tops Arizona State to improve to 2-1 in Pac-12 play appeared first on Emerald Media.

In its first ever game versus Arizona State, the Ducks dominated the Sun Devils, coming away with a 14-6 win on Friday night in Tempe.

Currently in their first season in program history, Arizona State gave the Pac-12 the minimum requirement of six participating schools to form its own conference. Oregon gave them a taste of elevated play that the Sun Devils hope to one day meet.

The Ducks didn’t wait long, either. Jill Zubillaga scored 32 seconds into the game to give Oregon the quick 1-0 lead. It was the first of four goals she scored on the night.

Mariah Gatti, Claire Domshick, Natalie Modly, Shannon Williams and two more from Zubillaga propelled Oregon to a 7-0. The Sun Devils responded with two straight goals at the end of the first half and beginning of the second half, but that would be as much momentum as they would get.

The Ducks scored five of next six goals to go up 12-3 with just under 12 minutes remaining. They’d coast the rest of the way, coming away with the eight-goal win.

Goalie Brittany Reed tied her season-high with 11 saves.

The Ducks take on No. 12 USC on Sunday at 12 p.m.

Follow Cole Kundich on Twitter @ckundich

The post Oregon tops Arizona State to improve to 2-1 in Pac-12 play appeared first on Emerald Media.

Simon Stevens and the Ducks had been in a funk.

Entering Thursday, Oregon sported a four-match losing streak, with the latter two coming at the hands of conference opponents UCLA and USC.

Stevens had mirrored the Ducks slump, losing his last four singles matches. That changed on Thursday, though, when Stevens delivered the clinching point in a 5-2 Oregon victory over Santa Clara at the Student Tennis Center.

“I think we’ve learned a lot about our team the last three weeks,” Stevens said. “If we can use the knowledge that we’ve learned, I’m sure we can do something great.”

The Ducks jumped out to the early 1-0 lead in doubles. Stevens, playing alongside Ty Gentry, came away with the 6-2 win from the No. 3 spot.

It didn’t come without a little bit of drama, though. The Oregon duo thought they had gone up 5-2 until a rebuttal from Santa Clara and the sideline official — followed by a lengthy debate — concluded that Oregon had not yet won the game and instead were ahead 40-30.

“Ty and I thought the game was over. We were 100% sure. But then the referee said no,” said Stevens. “I’m not even sure what happened; maybe the referee was right.”

In what could have been a turning point, Stevens and Gentry kept their cool, winning the game and then taking the next game to take the match, 6-2.

Moments later, No. 21 Cormac Clissold and Thomas Laurent came away with the 6-3 victory to move them one win away from the program record for most wins by a doubles pair.

In singles, all six Ducks won their first sets to put Santa Clara in a hole that they wouldn’t be able to dig themselves out of.

Ty Gentry put Oregon up 2-0 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Vasileios Iliopoulos. The sophomore continues to improve on an incredible 2018 season, in which he was 18-3 on the season and 9-1 in the spring.

Riki Oshima entered Thursday on a two-match losing streak of his own, but turned it around versus the Broncos’ Kamran Khan. Oshima won his first set 6-4 before surrendering a 2-0 lead in the second set. He bounced back, however, for the 6-4, 6-4 win to put Oregon up 3-0.

With the Ducks one point away from the win, it was Stevens that came away with the 6-3, 6-4 win — breaking serve at the end — to give Oregon the win out of the No. 2 spot.

“He served a whole lot better,” said head coach Nils Schyllander. “He was more assertive in the way he played today.”

With the match already in hand, No. 13 Thomas Laurent snapped a two-match losing streak of his own — his first since 2016 — with a 7-6, 6-3 win. Cormac Clissold and Akihiro Tanaka both fought, but dropped their matches in three sets.

After losing four in a row, the Ducks have some positive mojo entering a nine-day break before its next match versus Drake on March 24.

“We’re going into final [exams], we got to take care of that,” Schyllander said. “We have to get ready for a very good Drake team coming here in a week and a half.”

Follow Cole Kundich on Twitter @ckundich

The post Oregon men’s tennis rolls past Santa Clara to snap four-match losing streak appeared first on Emerald Media.

On Thursday, Oregon’s game versus Toledo was cancelled due to rain.

The No. 6 Ducks didn’t have to wait much longer for game action, though.

Playing five games within 48 hours, Oregon looked alive and well versus the opponents they welcomed to Eugene for the Oregon Invitational. That was especially the case on Sunday, in which offensive fireworks and lights-out pitching led the Ducks to a pair of victories over Montana and Bryant.

Game 1: No. 6 Oregon 7, Montana 0

Miranda Elish has been nothing short of dominant in her sophomore campaign with the Ducks.

That continued on Saturday at Jane Sanders Stadium. Going up against Montana, Elish put together one of her strongest outings of the 2018 season, throwing a one-hit complete game that featured 11 strikeouts to lead the Ducks to a 7-0 win, one day after her 12-strikeout performance in a 12-2 win over Weber State.

“My team played really great behind me,” Elish said. “You just have to really pitch every pitch with intent and purpose.”

Elish looked to be making a run towards her second career no-hitter, but a two-out single from Ashlyn Lyons in the top of the fourth spoiled that chance. That, and a Tori Lettus walk in the fifth inning, was all the offense the Grizzlies would muster together.

A pair of singles from Haley Cruse and Alexis Mack in the third set the stage for Shannon Rhodes, who drove in both Cruse and Mack with a 2-RBI single to give Oregon a 2-0 lead.

It was a new inning, but same story in the bottom half of the fifth. A Cruse single, Jenna Lilley walk and Mack single loaded the bases for Rhodes. The sophomore delivered again, bringing home Cruse and Lilley with her second 2-RBI single in as many at-bats to double Oregon’s lead to 4-0.

The Ducks tacked on three more runs in the fifth inning to go up 7-0.

Game 2: No. 6 Oregon 17, Bryant 1 

The sun showed up for the back-end of Sunday’s doubleheader, and so did the Ducks’ bats.

A 13-run second inning carried Oregon to a run-rule, 17-1 win over Bryant in the team’s final game before Pac-12 play kicks off on Friday versus UCLA.

“Offensively, we had some people swing the bat pretty well,” head coach Mike White said. “You want some good feelings going into next weekend. Obviously we’re facing one of the best teams in the country.”

Cherish Burks entered Sunday’s game with only five plate appearances on the season. She had made them count, hitting two home runs with six RBIs. She got her first start on Sunday.

With two on in the second, Burks launched her third home run of the season to put the Ducks up 5-0. The Ducks batted around in the inning, and Burks stayed hot, ripping a two-RBI double to left-center.

“The more live pitching you see, the better,” Burks said. “Whoever’s name is called, just going up and being able to produce. That’s the best thing, our ultimate goal.”

Burks’ teammates joined in on the fun in the second inning onslaught. Bowden cleared the bases with a double, Lilley singled home Burks, and Svekis drove in Lilley with an RBI single. Three more runs were brought in by way of a walk or hit by pitch.

Maggie Balint went 3.1 innings in the circle, giving up only one hit and one run. With the Ducks holding a 15-0 lead, White took out Balint and brought in freshman Olivia Kinsey, who threw 1.2 shutout innings in her second appearance of the season.

Follow Cole Kundich on Twitter @ckundich

The post Oregon softball sweeps Sunday doubleheader to finish 5-0 in Oregon Invitational appeared first on Emerald Media.

Fourteen seasons into its program history, Oregon women’s lacrosse finally played a Pac-12 match.

On Saturday night at Pape Field, the Ducks didn’t waste any time making their mark in the conference of champions.

Four goals within the first four minutes of Saturday night’s match gave the Ducks a commanding lead over Cal that they would not surrender, coming away with a 12-7 win over the Golden Bears to kick off a new era.

“It was a hard fought game,” head coach Katrina Dowd said. “They came at us. We had to keep switching things up. I think when our [defense] settled in, they were the difference makers for us today.”

The two schools — alongside USC, Stanford and Colorado — had previously competed as part of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. However, with Arizona State launching its program this season, the minimum requirement of six schools within the conference was met. With that, the inaugural season of Pac-12 play was ready to roll.

“You could feel how exciting it is for the whole conference,” Dowd said. “For women’s lacrosse, it’s huge for the sport to have the Pac-12 involved and to be a sponsored sport.”

Shannon Williams put together a pretty solid career competing in the MPSF. It didn’t take long for the junior to start crafting her resume in the Pac-12, scoring an unassisted goal just over one minute into the game.

Williams scored three more goals on the night to increase her season total to team-leading 14 on the season. However, it wasn’t before her teammates continued the Ducks scorching start to the match.

A trio of goals by Natalie Modly, Jill Zubilaga and Mariah Gatti within 93 seconds gave Oregon a 4-0 lead with over 26 minutes left in the first half.

The Ducks and Golden Bears were evenly matched the rest of the match. As it turned out, the quick start for Oregon ended up being the difference maker.

“We came out really ready to play,” Cambi Cukar said. “We were amped and excited.”

Cal didn’t throw in the towel after getting down early, though. The Golden Bears cut the lead in half after Meredith Haggerty scored her first goal of the season to make it a 6-4 lead for Oregon.

However, the Ducks kept their discipline following Cal’s rebuttal. Following Haggerty’s score, Zubillaga and Gatti scored consecutively to bump the lead back up to four.

Cal scored twice more to cut the lead to 8-6 and threaten the Ducks lead once again.

The Golden Bears didn’t have the energy to climb over the hump and steal one from the Ducks. Oregon scored four of the final five goals to come away with the five goal victory.

It was a well balanced effort from the Ducks. Williams and Gatti each finished with four goals, and Modly and Zubillaga each added two of their own.

The highlight of the second half came with 11:17 remaining, when Gatti scored her fourth goal of the night on a perfect over-the-net assist from Cambi Cukar to put Oregon up 11-6.

Cukar and Gatti had it working throughout the sixty minutes; all four of Gatti’s goals were assisted on by Cukar, who holds the program record for assists.

“I’m lucky as a feeder that she’s taller than every defender she’s on,” Cukar said about Gatti. “If I just pop it high, she knows how to bring it up and down; essentially a slam dunk.”

The Ducks will welcome No. 18 Stanford to Eugene on Sunday.

“We’re going to have to play the whole 60 minutes. We can’t just focus on the first five,” said Dowd.

Follow Cole Kundich on Twitter @ckundich

The post Quick start leads Oregon lacrosse to 12-7 win over Cal in Pac-12 opener appeared first on Emerald Media.

When it comes to the sport of tennis, most attention is drawn towards the accomplishments of the individual. Collegiately, individual rankings and conference player of the week honors tend to steal most of the headlines.

Considering that, it can be easy to underappreciate what Armando Soemarno brings to the table for the Ducks. Soemarno plays exclusively in doubles for Oregon, but you don’t need to be around his teammates or coaches for long to appreciate how much they value his impact on the success of the program.

“I think he really loves playing doubles, and it shows,” head coach Nils Schyllander said. “His passion is in the doubles play, and he really embraces it.”

The results match his passion. More times than not, Soemarno has come away on the winning side to help the Ducks snag the opening doubles point of each match, which can sometimes be the difference between a win or loss for the team.

“Since I was young, I’ve always liked doubles better than singles,” Soemarno said. “It’s more action.”

Soemarno currently owns a 38-14 record playing in doubles, playing all but two matches either in the No. 1 or No. 2 spot. Additionally, Soemarno is 3-1 in NCAA Tournament matches.

His presence atop doubles play hasn’t come as a surprise to Oregon, either. Coming out of Indonesia, Soemarno won six doubles titles on the IFT junior circuit and was a finalist at the South East Asia Championship.

“We knew how good he was in doubles, and there’s a reason why some of the top programs in the country wanted him,” Schyllander said. “Definitely, he was brought in with doubles in mind.”

Soemarno’s winning ways in doubles didn’t waste any time adjusting to collegiate tennis. Playing alongside then-junior Jayson Amos, the pair won the doubles tournament title at the UC Santa Barbara Classic. It was the start of a 2016 campaign that saw the pair go 18-3 together.

“We clicked pretty fast,” Amos said. “Our styles complemented each other pretty well. He’s a really aggressive player at the net and moves well.”

Fast forward two seasons later and the roles have switched. Amos has graduated, and Soemarno is now the junior playing alongside freshman Charles Roberts. The pair is currently 6-2 together, and has played five matches – including the last three – from the No. 1 spot.

“We’re getting to know each other inside the court and off the court, which is great,” Soemarno said. “If you don’t have any connection, if you don’t know the guy, if you don’t feel comfortable, you’re just going to do your own thing and you could just slip up.”

Soemarno’s importance on the team isn’t just limited to doubles. Almost as important as his play on the court is the support he offers to his teammates every match in singles action.

“It just speaks volume of his character,” Amos said. “It’s not that he doesn’t complain; it’s that he is so involved and supportive of everyone else.”

The Ducks experienced one of their best seasons in program history in 2017. With Pac-12 play around the corner this season, doubles may be the difference maker. There’s no question that all eyes will be on Soemarno to continue what he does best.

Follow Cole Kundich on Twitter @ckundich

The post Armando Soemarno’s impact in doubles play felt both on and off the court for the Ducks appeared first on Emerald Media.

If Friday is any indication, it was just the start of what looks to be an exciting season for Oregon lacrosse.

Four goals apiece from Shannon Williams and Jill Zubillaga — along with a myriad of contributions from the rest of the team — led Oregon (1-0) to a commanding 15-5 victory over UC Davis (0-2) in the Ducks first game of the 2018 season.

“I think the energy level from our team, especially opening up at home, was tremendous,”  head coach Katrina Dowd said. “I was really happy with the execution of our gameplan.”

Just over two minutes in, the Ducks got off and running with their first goal of the season from Cambi Cukar to put Oregon up 1-0.

Shortly after, Natalie Modly gave Oregon a 2-0 lead with her first goal of the season. Friday was an encouraging start to the season for Modly, who only played in the first three games of the 2017 season before suffering a season-ending injury.

Following a goal by the Aggies’ Kate Felner , the Williams show began. Coming off a 51-goal campaign in the 2017 season, the junior found the back of the net for her first goal of the season to give Oregon the 3-1 advantage. Less than a minute after UC Davis cut the deficit to 3-2, Williams scored No. 2 on the season to give Oregon the 4-2 lead.

In its game versus UC Davis last season, Oregon fell behind 4-0 before coming back for an exciting 10-9 win. The Ducks knew better than to let their foot off the gas pedal following the strong start.

Leading the charge during the back-end of the first half was Zubillag, which gave the Ducks a commanding 9-2 lead at the end of the first half.

It was a chilly night at Pape Field, but Zubillaga stayed hot in the second half. Following a goal apiece from both UC Davis and Oregon, the senior gave the Ducks a 11-3 lead with her fourth goal of the night.

“[We] just need to go out and have fun out there,” said Zubillaga.

With the game well in hand, the Ducks closed out its season-opener without a scare. Williams scored two more goals in the second half to pull even with Zubillaga’s four goals on the night.

A pair of Louisville transfers made their impact felt immediately. Senior Brittany Reed made 11 saves in goal, while midfielder Lexy Biller contributed with two goals in the second half.

“Lexy Biller has made an impact already for us,” said Dowd. “Brittany Read shut the door there, and came really focused and played excellent for us.”

The Ducks’ seniors combined for eight of the team’s 15 goals, but perhaps no score drew a bigger reaction than freshman Claire Domshick’s first career collegiate score to give Oregon a 15-4 lead.

In their second year under Dowd, the Ducks offense picked up where it left off. After a 2017 campaign in which the team went 9-8 and scored 214 goals, Oregon’s offensive attack was a high-octane machine on Friday. Many weapons such as Williams, Zubillaga and Cukar kept the pressure on for much of the night.

They’ll need that type of efficiency — and more — on Sunday, when they travel up to Portland to face No. 7 Syracuse in what might turn out to be the Ducks toughest test of the season.

“I think it’s a great test for our team. When you see them on the schedule, you go a little bit harder,” said Dowd. “I think the opportunity is there for us to go up and really play well.”

Follow Cole Kundich on Twitter @ckundich

The post Oregon lacrosse starts 2018 season with dominant 15-5 win over UC Davis appeared first on Emerald Media.

The Ducks entered the season ranked No. 3 in the nation. Their play on the field hasn’t shied away from meeting those expectations.

That continued on Saturday, in which the Ducks pummeled Missouri 14-2, followed by a 14-0 victory over UTEP in the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Arizona.

Oregon (5-0) didn’t waste any time in its first game against Missouri. After scoring one run in the first inning, the Ducks exploded for nine in the second. With two outs, Oregon recorded seven hits. Jenna Lilley put the exclamation point in the inning with a grand slam to give the Ducks a 5-0 lead.

Gwen Svekis and DJ Sanders joined the party, with each player going deep in the second inning. Lauren Lindvall added a two-run home run in the four-run fourth inning for the Ducks.

The four Oregon seniors, Lilley, Svekis, Sanders and Lindvall, combined to go 5-for-11 with four home runs and 11 RBIs.

The offensive outburst made the job easy for starting pitcher Megan Kleist, who went all five innings, allowing two runs on six hits.

Oregon had to wait nearly seven hours before its next game versus UTEP, but the bats did anything but cool off.

In the front end of the doubleheader, it was the seniors that did the heavy lifting. Against UTEP, though, it was the freshman that led the way early.

Lauren Burke’s first collegiate hit drove in a pair to put the Ducks up 2-0, before scoring on an Alexis Mack bunt to put Oregon ahead 3-0. Fellow freshman Mary Iakopo ripped a two-RBI double to give the Ducks a 4-0 lead in the top of the third inning.

The Ducks opened the floodgates in the fourth inning, punctuated by a three-run pinch hit home run from Cherish Burks to give Oregon an 11-0 lead.

Oregon tacked on three more runs in the fifth inning to go up 14-0. Miranda Elish finished off the shutout by striking out the side in the fifth inning to give the Ducks the run-rule win, its fourth straight of that kind.

Oregon plays New Mexico tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. PT to conclude the tournament before the team heads to Mexico.

Follow Cole Kundich on Twitter @ckundich

The post Oregon softball run-rules Missouri and UTEP in Saturday doubleheader appeared first on Emerald Media.